Alpha Universe: New Life
by VibeQuake
Summary: A new era has begun at OWCA. Perry is trying to adjust to this different lifestyle, but it has become hard for him. One of his friends has been accused of betraying OWCA but Perry knows he is innocent so he assembles a team of OWCA agents who also know the truth, in order to find out who really leaked those names. (sequel to Christmas War)
1. Prologue

**All characters you do not recognise are mine but all characters you do recognise are not mine. Any other references that seem out of place or you recognise from other media are not mine either. I also do not own any songs that appear. Slight AU.**


	2. A Great Day

Perry began laying the table for dinner. In the living room, he could hear Teddy shrieking with delight and Priya laughing as they played a game. He smiled to himself and lay out the eight places with plates and cutlery. He paused to look out the window at the street. Ever since he had moved to OWCA's brand new underground village, he sorely missed small things like rain and snow. The underground village had a dome over it that mimicked the sky and even the temperature of the upper world. The one thing it couldn't do was make stuff fall from the sky, like rain or snow. The endless sunny days were fine for a while, but Perry missed having rain.

At least he, Priya, and Teddy had their own house.

"Perry, come over here quickly!"

Perry almost dropped the plate he was holding. He quickly set it down on the table in a random place and rushed into the living room. Priya was kneeling on the beige carpet with Teddy in her arms. "Teddy was walking!"

Perry hurriedly knelt down beside his mate. Priya put Teddy down on the carpet so that the six month old was facing his father. "Come on, sweetie. Do it again."

"I don't know if I can, Mommy," Teddy said nervously.

"I know you can do it, Teddy."

Priya helped her son to stand up. On unsteady legs, Teddy stumbled towards Perry, who scooped him up proudly. Perry and Priya crooned and hugged their son. "Well done, Teddy!" gushed Priya.

"I did it, Mommy!"

"You are pretty darn cute," Perry told his son. He stood up. "They're going to be here soon. Better get the music playlist ready."

Priya left Teddy playing by himself on the carpet and went to the CD player. "We only have two CDs," she called to Perry, who had gone back into the dining room. " _Christmas Hits_ or _Best of PFT._ "

"Well it sure isn't Christmas," called Perry's sardonic voice.

Priya put the _Best of PFT_ CD in. The first song that began to play was the old favourite: _Gitchee Gitchee Goo._

" _Bow chikka bow wow,"_ Priya sang as she picked up a sheet from the floor, intending to clear it away.

She stopped when she felt a tug. Teddy was clinging onto the sheet and giggling. Priya smiled and wrapped her son up in the sheet while Teddy squealed excitedly. He rolled around in the sheet until it was wrenched from Priya's grasp. Priya grinned at her son, who stayed completely still. "Where's Teddy?" she sang.

Giggling came from the sheet. Priya tiptoed across the carpet and caught the little platypus around the waist. Teddy squealed as Priya began tickling him.

"They're here!" Perry called.

Priya took the sheet and shook Teddy out of it. The light blue platypus tumbled onto the soft carpet, still giggling. As Priya put the sheet away, Teddy crawled over the carpet and to the front door, where Perry was letting his friends in.

"Hey, Perry. Good to see you," Ohio greeted as he and Perry hugged.

Piper crawled over to Teddy, who said proudly, "I walked today, Piper."

"I've been walking for four months," Piper boasted.

"You're a year older than me," complained Teddy. "That's why. And if you've been walking for longer than me, then why aren't you walking now?"

Piper stood up on two legs and smirked at Teddy, who pouted. "Show off." He went off to sulk.

Patty and India were chatting by the front door, while Sam and Luke chased each other round the dining room and under the table. Perry and Ohio were putting the food on the table, trying to dodge the kids running around.

"We've come straight from work on the East Side," Ohio was saying to Perry. "Our home's nearly finished. It looks kind of like yours."

"They're all going to look like mine," Perry said, placing the potato salad bowl on the table. "Because there's only one blueprint."

"You know what I mean." Ohio hopped up onto the kitchen counter and began swinging his legs. "We finished the ice skating rink today. It's supposed to open next Friday. Maybe we could go there sometime."

Perry nodded. "That sounds great. I haven't been ice skating since I was about three. Phineas and Ferb took me to the rink in Danville when they were younger."

"When was the last time you saw your hosts?" inquired Ohio.

"They're not my hosts anymore," Perry sighed. "I haven't seen them since I moved out, six months ago."

"You haven't even visited them?" Ohio said incredulously.

"I haven't had time," Perry said, knocking Ohio's legs out the way so that he could get some bowls from the cupboard underneath him. "We've been so busy with all the building work. Today was the only day I've had off in six months. But it doesn't matter. I wouldn't have been able to see the boys much anyway; they're at school. They actually break up for summer tomorrow, so we'll have a while to do stuff together."

"That's good," commented Ohio.

For few minutes, Perry and Ohio just listened to and sang along with the songs coming from the living room. They got through _Summer All Over The World_ and _Summer Belongs To You_ before everyone sat down to their buffet-type meal.

After that, the eight platypuses went to the playground. They were the only ones in the park, probably because everyone else was working. Perry and Priya had worked overtime, so they were allowed a day off when everybody else was still working.

Perry took with them to the playground a special hose pipe/sprinkler thing that Phineas and Ferb had made for him. It was evening by then, but still quite hot, so the two mothers sat on a bench and chatted some more while the two fathers chased their kids over the grass with the sprinkler. Teddy sat with Priya and India for the first five minutes because he couldn't run like Ohio's kids could, but soon Perry put the little platypus on his shoulder so that he could join in the fun.

When that was over, it was getting dark. Perry, Priya, and Teddy said goodbye to Ohio's family and headed home. Perry tucked Teddy into bed and went downstairs to help Priya clean up.

"That was very fun," Priya commented as she did the washing up.

"Yes, yes it was," agreed Perry as he brought more stuff to her to wash up.

"By the way, I need you to watch Teddy on Friday evening. I'm going out for a girl's night with Patty, India, and Victoria. We're going to see a new romantic movie that's just come out."

"Who's Victoria?"

"Victoria the Dalmatian. She's Pinky's new girlfriend. She's really sweet. She's offered to pay for the popcorn."

Perry dropped the plastic bowl he was holding. "Since when does Pinky have a girlfriend?"

Priya stared at Perry as the teal platypus picked up the bowl. "Perry, Pinky and Victoria have been dating for three weeks. You didn't know?"

"I haven't seen Pinky in a while," admitted Perry, adding the plastic bowl to the bowl of soapy water. "He's been working on the North Side."

"Still, you haven't talked to him in three weeks? You should be a better friend than that, Perry."

"I know, I know." Perry sighed. "It's just that…well, I'm trying to adjust to domestic life. For one thing, it's really odd not going out on regular missions. The last time I went out on a mission was six months ago, and that was to rescue you from LOVEMUFFIN."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Priya groaned, scrubbing up a plate.

"For another thing, when I imagined either temporarily or permanently retiring from missions for domestic life, I always imagined I'd be living with the Flynn-Fletchers. I mean, don't get me wrong, this is the perfect life." He gestured upwards. "Being in this house with you and Teddy, it's perfect. It's just hard to go from daily missions to domestic life."

Perry hoped Priya wouldn't get offended. It turned out that he needed not worry. "I do understand that, Perry. But still, you should try and be more in touch with your friends. And I don't just mean Ohio; you see him almost every day. Have you heard from Peter or Terry recently?"

"Peter's been relocated to Seattle, I know that," Perry answered. "And Terry…nope, I got nothing."

Priya approached Perry and put her wet forearms around his neck. "I know you're missing Phineas and Ferb, and regular missions, but until Major Monogram can get OWCA back on track, our place is here with our family. With you and me and Teddy."

Perry hesitated, before nodding. "You're right, Priya."

Priya tweaked his bill. "I always am," she teased.

Perry suddenly realised his neck was wet. "Aw man, come on!"

Priya started laughing. She flicked some soapy water at Perry, hitting his face. _"Priya!"_

Needless to say, the washing up didn't get done for a whole hour.


	3. The Accusation

After work had begun on the underground village, Major Monogram had launched an investigation into who had leaked the list of agents' names. However, it was a "one step forward, two steps back" kind of case, as he told Perry the next day.

"Every time I find someone who has a motive, it turns out they didn't have opportunity," Monogram sighed. "And all the agents who have opportunity don't have motives. And I'm trying not to think about the means. Only two people know or can find out the names of every single agent of OWCA: me and Carl. And I've checked Carl," he added as Perry opened his bill. "It hurt to, since he's been nothing but 100% dedicated to the job since he was hired. I'm excluding the whole "evil" incident," he added again as Perry opened his beak again. "Because that wasn't his fault. The point is: nobody inside OWCA could have done it except one person."

"Who?" inquired Perry.

Monogram grimaced. "You're not going to like it."

Perry suddenly realised. "No. There's no way."

"He had the opportunity and means," Monogram said sympathetically. "When he got "lost" in OWCA on the day before the attack, there was a period of at least an hour when he was unaccounted for. He could have made his way to my office easily."

"That means nothing!" Perry snapped. Last week, he would not have dared to even raise his voice to his superior officer but he couldn't help it: his friend's innocence was being unfairly questioned. "That's circumstantial at best.

"And what about motive?"

"Cassie said she dug something up. Go see what she found."

Perry felt a sharp stab in his chest. "You told Cassie to investigate my friend?"

"Yes I did." Monogram did not look ashamed. "It's a major's job to look after his own organisation and if I have to tell one of my agents to investigate another, then I can do that."

"But Ohio's not even an agent!" Perry protested.

"Exactly." Monogram pointed at Perry, who was taken aback. "It is precisely the fact that he is not an agent that incriminates him even more. None of our agents would betray us: they're all loyal to OWCA."

"Well apparently one of them isn't," argued Perry. "Because Ohio isn't the traitor."

"Go and see Cassie and examine her evidence. Then decide."

"With all due respect, sir-."

"That's an order, Agent P," Monogram reinforced, though his tone was not harsh, it was firm.

Perry nodded limply. "Yes sir."

He saluted, the gesture as limp as his nod. He left the office and was immediately confronted by Cassie, who had a piece of paper in her hand. The black cat was looking pleased with herself. Perry found himself getting more and more irritated at that stupid look on her face. "Wipe that smirk off your face or I'll-."

"You'll what?" Cassie said tauntingly.

It was clear that the meek and quiet cat who had been lying in that hospital bed, in extreme pain from her plenitude of broken bones, was back to normal.

Perry scowled. "What's your evidence?"

Before Cassie could reply, Perry heard a voice from behind him. "Hey, Perry!"

From the increased intensity of Cassie's smirk, Perry deduced who was standing behind him before he even turned. "Hey, Ohio."

The brown platypus came to stand with Perry and Cassie. "Do you know what's up with everyone today? They didn't seem very friendly."

Perry's heart sank. Clearly Major Monogram or Cassie or someone else had passed on the news that Ohio was a traitor.

"Maybe it's because they finally learnt the truth about you," Cassie said to Ohio in a mock sweet voice.

"The truth?" frowned Ohio.

"The truth about your background and the person who raised you."

That seemed to hit Ohio where it really hurt. He turned pale as he and Perry saw Cassie tauntingly hold the piece of paper in front of him. Ohio leapt for it but Cassie held it above his head. "Ohio?" Perry said nervously. Ohio's reaction made him worried that his friend was hiding something.

Ohio turned resignedly to Cassie and said, "I don't want him to find out from anybody but me. I'll tell him."

Cassie smiled deviously. "I don't think so." When Ohio lunged for the paper again, Cassie tripped him up.

"Hey!" Perry snapped.

"Perry, he was raised by a member of LOVEMUFFIN."

There was no going back now. The cards were full on the table, and Cassie held all the aces.

"Wh-what?" Perry could barely register what had just happened.

"He was raised by Doctor Cornelius Bloodpudding until he was five," Cassie continued, though she had the good grace not to look smug anymore. On the other hand, she wasn't exactly being utterly serious. "He fought for LOVEMUFFIN many times."

"That's behind me," Ohio said, getting up from the floor.

"How long did you fight for LOVEMUFFIN?" Perry asked, hoping his voice didn't sound like he was feeling betrayed, which he was a little.

"Perry, that doesn't matter-."

All of a sudden, Perry felt anger surge through him. Anger at Cassie, for doing this to him. Anger at Ohio, for not telling him. This anger made him interrupt in a loud voice, _"How many years did you fight for LOVEMUFFIN?!"_

"Seven!" Ohio snapped.

Perry fell silent. "You spent literally three quarters of your life fighting for the evil scientists," he stated. "And you never thought to tell me this?"

"I was trying to escape from that life," Ohio said, sounding defeated. "You know what the funny thing is? After the siege of LOVEMUFFIN, I was intending to tell you. But I couldn't."

"Why?" demanded Perry.

"Because I knew how this looked." Ohio leant against the wall and tipped his head back, closing his eyes as he talked. "Major Monogram was so harsh when he talked to us about the leak. The language he used made me feel bad, even though I knew it wasn't me. But the fact that my background shows so much contact with LOVEMUFFIN meant that I was going to be condemned if that information came to light. I wouldn't be able to tell everybody I wasn't guilty, especially since Major Monogram has already told everyone about the opportunity and means I apparently had. If my background came out, it would be all over. That would add clear motive: loyalty to LOVEMUFFIN. But I'm not." He turned to Perry. "I swear, I am not loyal to LOVEMUFFIN. I can't say I'm loyal to OWCA either, but I would certainly not give out information that would endanger lives."

Cassie snorted.

"Believe what you want," Ohio said to her. "But _I_ know I'm not guilty, and so does Perry. Right?"

He turned back to Perry, who honestly did not know what to think. The evidence was no longer circumstantial; it very firmly pointed towards Ohio. Perry was torn between the clear evidence and his friendship with Ohio.

"Perry?" Ohio said again, pleading.

Perry made up his mind quickly. "I believe Ohio," he said to Cassie. "Sure, the evidence points against him, but I know him."

"That's conflict of interest," Cassie snarled.

"Come again?"

"Conflict of interest is when an investigating officer has a personal tie to an investigation so they're more likely to be biased," Cassie explained, though her glare did not waver.

"I meant that I know his character. Ohio saved my life twice and nearly died the second time. He is not the kind of person who would betray people."

"Really?" said Cassie. "Do you really believe that?"

"Yes," Perry snapped, putting his hand on Ohio's shoulder. "I believe in Ohio. He has never betrayed anyone in his life."

"Actually, Perry…"

Perry turned to look at Ohio. His friend was looking very awkward. "Oh, please don't say you did it after I defended you so ferociously."

"I wasn't going to," Ohio said, looking a little defensive. "I was going to say that what you said about me not betraying anyone isn't strictly true."

"Here it comes," sighed Cassie.

"I didn't betray OWCA!" Ohio snapped at the cat agent. "All I wanted to say is that the reason I left LOVEMUFFIN is because I betrayed them."

"You betrayed LOVEMUFFIN," repeated Perry, stunned.

"It was during that whole "ice age" incident two summers ago."

Perry nodded, remembering the time that Doofenshmirtz had pulled the Earth further away from the sun.

"I didn't like what they were doing anymore so I helped Major Monogram release all the agents."

"You did that?" Perry felt confused. "Major Monogram didn't mention that."

Ohio looked surprised. "Really? I don't know why."

"Enough!" Cassie hissed. "None of this changes the fact that you leaked the list of names to LOVEMUFFIN."

"But I'm telling you I didn't!" Ohio protested.

Perry stepped between the two agents. "That's enough. Ohio, go home. Cassie, go to Major Monogram and show him your new evidence."

"I don't take orders from you," snarled Cassie.

Perry got up close to her face. "Yes you do," he said, quietly but dangerously. "I am OWCA's top agent and Major Monogram has given me clearance. I am of a higher status than you, and therefore I can give you orders. Now do it."

With a look that could kill ten elephants at once, Cassie stalked into Monogram's office. Ohio shot Perry a grateful look as he headed off down the corridor.

Perry pinched the bridge of his bill. The confrontation had taken a lot out of him. He checked his watch. It was two o' clock. _Phineas and Ferb get out of school at three,_ he thought. He decided to go and wait for them outside their school. _It'll be nice to see them again after those months away from them. I can't believe they're in high school now._

He walked off down the corridor, the only thought in his mind being where he was going to take Priya for their next date night.


	4. Catching Up

Phineas and Ferb exited the high school amongst hundreds of their classmates, who were all chatting about their summer plans. On all fours, Perry wove through the legs of the other high schoolers and stopped in front of the two teenage boys, chattering to get their attention. They had been chatting about the projects they were going to do this summer, when they saw the platypus.

"Perry!" Phineas bent down and scooped up their former pet. "Aww, long time no see, buddy! How've things been?"

Perry chattered again, purposefully jerking his eyes towards their classmates. They got the hint. "Let's go to Isabella's mom's restaurant," Phineas suggested. "Isabella's just started working there. She makes a great burrito."

"You just want an excuse to see Isabella," Ferb accused.

Phineas didn't try to defend himself. "You got me. I do want to see Isabella but I also want to catch up with our secret agent former pet whom we haven't seen in six months."

"Sure, say that aloud in a busy place. It's not like secret identities matter."

Bickering good naturedly, the two boys, Phineas still carrying Perry, walked to Isabella's family's restaurant. They were seated immediately; it was halfway between the standard lunch time and the standard dinner time.

Phineas placed Perry on the seat next to him. "Man, so much has happened since we last saw you," he said to Perry.

"Are Baljeet and Ginger going out yet?"

Phineas and Ferb exchanged a look. "How did you know?" Ferb asked.

"I didn't. They actually are going out now?"

The two boys simultaneously nodded.

"It's about time," Perry said, grabbing a menu. "I almost locked those two in a closet last year. It was just getting so frustrating. It was clear they liked each other but not even Buford or the Fireside Girls could make them admit it. They had a few awkward conversations and that was it."

"Yeah, Isabella was over the moon," Ferb said. "Yet, it still took a lot more a certain triangle-headed boy to figure out that Isabella had feelings for him."

Phineas glared at his brother. "I was oblivious when I was younger!"

"You only realised, like, three weeks ago."

"I didn't say when I was young; I said when I was younger."

At that moment, a pretty black-haired girl came up to the table with a notepad. "Hey, Phineas. Hey, Ferb. Whatcha orderin'?"

"Hi, Isabella," Phineas said back, a slight red glow to his cheeks. "Three burritos please."

Isabella lowered the notepad and caught sight of Perry. "Hey, Perry, long time no see. How's Pinky?"

"Got a girlfriend," Perry grinned.

Isabella nearly dropped her notebook. "Wait, what?"

"I'm guessing he hasn't told you?"

"No," Isabella said slowly. "We haven't really spoken in a while. He's been really busy. We had a phone call four months ago but I haven't seen him since Christmas. What's his girlfriend's name?"

"Victoria," replied Perry. "She's a Dalmatian, apparently. I've never seen her myself, but my mate's friends with her."

"When you next see him, tell him I wish him well."

"Sure."

A slightly awkward silence followed this. Isabella went off to place the order, while Phineas and Ferb began discussing a certain teacher at their high school. Perry kept quiet until the burritos arrived. Phineas had been right; the burrito was the best he had ever eaten. He finished well before the two boys, who were chatting at the same time. Feeling a sudden desire to be with someone else, Perry slipped under the table and out of the restaurant, leaving a couple of dollars behind to pay for his meal. He dropped to all fours and was about to head for home when he heard Phineas say, "Hey, Ferb? Where's Perry?"

That made Perry feel very depressed but he carried on down the street.

…

When he got home, he found Priya asleep on the sofa in the living room. He gently sat down on the couch next to her, not intending to wake her up, but Priya's eyes opened. "Perry?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Nah, I wasn't sleeping," Priya yawned. "So where've you been?"

Perry told her about his meeting with Phineas and Ferb. "Well, _I_ think it was good for you to see the boys at all," Priya commented after Perry said he wished their meeting was longer.

"I guess," Perry said doubtfully. "Anyway." He took Priya's hand and helped her off the couch. "Get ready. It's date night."

"Perry, we haven't had a date night for months," Priya said, echoing almost exactly what Perry had said all those months ago.

"Exactly. That's why we're having one now."

Perry made for the door. Priya called after him, "Will you at least tell me where we're going?"

Perry grinned. "Some might call it cliché but I call it the old favourite: dinner and a movie."


	5. An Unexpected Return

She had been on the road for two months now. It wasn't getting any easier. Her fortune telling skills made quite a bit of money but she was stuck in a cycle: she earned money and subsequently had to spend it to pay for food and other necessities. She got a little profit each time the cycle went round but she was still a long way off from being able to afford a proper house. She currently lived in her caravan, pulled by an old car. She wished she had a choice but she didn't.

As she parked her caravan by the road in a random field for the night, she glanced at the photograph on her sideboard. Two very young kids, both girls, grinned at the camera, one of them holding a birthday cake. She turned the photo over and read the inscription for the hundredth time: _Rai and Shika's fourth birthday._ She put the photo down to stop the tears from forming. She headed outside and caught sight of the lights of a city through the dark of the night. She shined her torch on the road side sign and read _Welcome to Danville._

Danville…

The name echoed in her mind. She hadn't been to Danville in years, not since the twins had been born. She had often looked on maps at the place, wishing she could go back and see that one man. The father of her twins. But she couldn't. He was married at the time—she didn't know if he still was—and she knew she had been wrong to have any kind of relationship with him. Yet, still she loved him. Maybe she would "pop in" and see him, as he had told her she could when she first left, pregnant with the twins. She had never gone back, trying to forget about him, trying to make a life without him. Perhaps she should find him again, now that she didn't have the twins anymore…


	6. Seventy-Two Hours

After Perry and Priya's dinner at the Garcia-Shapiro diner, one of the only animal-friendly restaurants in the Tri-State Area, they headed to the cinema. On the way, they got many suspicious looks; even though they were walking on all fours, there probably wasn't one person in Danville who didn't know about OWCA now. Even non-animal agent animals were being treated with suspicion; nobody knew which animals were agents and which weren't.

At the cinema, the two platypuses decided from the look the ticket officer gave them that it wasn't worth it. A little disappointed, they headed home. When they reached the village, they were greeted by India, running down the cobbled street with baby Teddy in her arms. Perry instantly felt sick with fear. Priya ran to meet India with Perry close behind. "India, what's wrong? Is Teddy okay?"

"Yes, Teddy's fine."

Perry breathed out and gazed at his son, who was asleep. He looked back at India and noticed that she was sweating and she had a very worried look on her face. "Are you okay?"

"Major Monogram called. Ohio's been arrested."

…

Perry ran through the corridors of OWCA, skidding around the corners. He heard many agents calling his name but he ignored them. At one point, he skidded too late and hit the wall but he quickly continued running. When he reached Major Monogram's office, the door was open so he burst right in. He found Monogram sitting behind his desk, with Apollo Hastings apparently giving him some kind of report. They both froze when Perry came in. Monogram gave Perry a resigned look before he turned to Apollo. "We'll continue this later."

Apollo nodded respectfully and, with a glance at Perry as he went past the platypus, left the room. Perry did not beat about the bush. He stormed up to the desk and said, "Why did you arrest Ohio?"

"Sit down, Agent P," Monogram said, gesturing to the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

"I'd rather stand," Perry said, rather more forcefully than he intended. "…sir," he added.

"Very well. In answer to your question, I have arrested Ohio because the evidence overwhelmingly points to him having been the one to leak the list of names."

"But he's innocent, I know he is! If you would just let me-!"

Monogram held up a hand, halting Perry's speech. "Agent P, I'm going to give you permission to visit his cell as often as you need to. Be aware, I'm only giving you three days."

"To do what?" Perry asked, baffled.

"You claim that Ohio is innocent. Therefore, I am giving you three days to find the real traitor. During that time, as I said, I'm going to give you permission to visit Ohio's cell as often as you need to."

"I-." Perry stopped and nodded. "Thank you, sir. Um…" He paused. "What do _you_ think? Do _you_ think Ohio's guilty?"

Monogram exhaled loudly through his nose. "I honestly don't know what to think, Agent P. But if I may give you one word of caution: ninety-nine percent of OWCA's agents believe that Ohio is guilty. They may not take kindly to you trying to prove him otherwise."

"Understood, sir." Perry saluted and sprinted out of the room. He needed to get this done. He only had three days, after all, which was not long in the grand scheme of things. But first, there was a particular brown platypus that he needed to see.

…

When Perry reached the entrance to the cell block, he saw who was on duty and felt confused. For some reason, Monogram had put two cats on duty at the same time, both very different. Cassie, who was a jerk, and Karen, who was creepily silent.

"Hey, Karen," Perry said to his former teammate.

"Meow," Karen said, fixing her unnervingly large eyes on Perry.

"O-kay." He turned to Cassie, who was leaning against the door, looking at her claws as a human girl would look at her nails. "Hello, Cassie. Could you buzz me through?"

Cassie blew on her claws and didn't answer. Perry felt his impatience rising. "If you could please buzz me through, that would be great."

Cassie smirked. "Getting a little irritated, aren't you, P?"

That tipped Perry over the edge. He grabbed Cassie by the scruff of her collar and lifted the startled cat off the ground. "Listen here, you annoying little feline! I have exactly seventy-two hours to prove my friend's innocence and that makes me _very_ testy. If you want to test my patience more, then I will show you how scary I can be when I'm _really_ irritated. If you don't want your very shiny claws to be ripped out, one by one, then I suggest you buzz me through, got it?"

He dropped the terrified cat on the ground. Cassie nervously pressed the button to buzz Perry through. As he entered the cell block, he thought he caught sight of a grin on Karen's face, before the door closed behind him. A long corridor was spread out in front of him, with glass panes separated with black walls. Only one of the cells was being used. Perry went in front of the glass panel and looked into the bright cell. The brown platypus was lying on the fold-out bed, with his back to the pane. Perry automatically placed his hand on the glass and muttered Ohio's name. This alerted Ohio to the fact that Perry was there. He rolled over, saw Perry, and sat up on the bed with his legs hanging over the side. "Perry…"

"What happened?"

"I was working in your office," Ohio replied. "Like you said I could."

Perry didn't like the accusing tone in Ohio's voice. "I know I did. Carry on."

"Couple of agents came in and did the whole "you have the right to remain silent" routine and then marched me down here."

"Who arrested you?"

"The two agents who dislike me the most. Surely you can work out one of them."

"Cassie," Perry said with disgust.

"Yep, and some kind of bird agent."

"There are a lot of birds at OWCA. What did he or she look like?"

"He was small and red and he had a weird kind of voice."

"I know who that is." Perry sighed. "It's James, the whale song singing double breasted angle hooper. They're the natural enemy of the platypus in the wild."

"That would make sense why the bird seemed to hate me even more than usual."

"But why does Cassie hate you so much?"

Ohio paused and grimaced. Perry got the impression he was slightly embarrassed. "Perhaps because on the day before the siege of LOVEMUFFIN she was annoying me so much that I pushed her and she fell into the water cooler and got soaking wet."

Perry sucked air through his teeth. "Yep, that'll do it. Cassie hates water more than most cats."

"Ah, now her overly hostile reaction makes sense."

"Well, not just that, but Cassie's secretly a little insecure. She hates being humiliated. If the incident had just happened and she wasn't that insecure, she probably would have given you a hard time and then forgotten about you after a few days. But add the fact that she hates being humiliated? You basically sealed your fate the moment she hit that water cooler."

"Aren't we getting a little off topic?" Ohio asked.

"Not at all. We're trying to think of people who could possibly want to frame you."

"Frame me?"

"Yeah, someone went to great lengths to make sure you were blamed for the leak. Don't worry, Monogram has given me three days to solve the mystery, and I am going to crack it. I'm not going to let you take the blame for this. You didn't do it."

"Thank you." Ohio's voice cracked. "How's India and the kids?"

"India's worried, naturally. I'm going to try and arrange a visit for her, or at the very least a phone call to you."

"I don't know what to say…"

"Just wait." Perry placed his hand back on the glass, and Ohio mirrored the movement. "I'm going to get you out."

Ohio nodded, tears forming in his eyes. Perry turned and walked away, gears turning in his head. If he was going to prove Ohio's innocence, he was going to need help.


	7. Reversal of Fortune

The next morning, she got a client. The guy came to her door and knocked. She was already up anyway, but slightly confused as to how the man knew she was a fortune teller. Then she remembered that the words "Fortune Teller—Tarot Cards Only" were on the side of her caravan. She invited him in and they sat down in the special room in her caravan that she used for consultations.

"Is there a specific thing you want me to show you?" she asked, as per usual.

"Just my past, present, and future," said the man.

She regarded him. He was wearing a black suit with a striped tie, and looked very smart and formal. She wondered who he was, if he was important, and why he wanted his fortune told.

"May I know your name?" she inquired.

The man blanched slightly. "If you don't mind, I'd prefer to remain anonymous, Miss Himura."

"Please, call me Kata. So what shall I call you for our session?"

The man paused for a moment. "Mr Jones," he replied eventually.

"Very well, Mr Jones." Kata picked up her cards and fanned them out in front of the man. "Please choose four from anywhere."

"Four?" repeated Mr Jones. "Past, present, future, and…?"

"Just pick four, please."

After he had done so, she took them from him and put them in a line on the table. She turned the first card over to show a magnificent arch, with an obviously younger Mr Jones standing beneath it, holding a degree. "This is you, yes?"

Mr Jones looked pale. "Y-yes. But how on Earth did-?"

"Educated at Harvard," Kata continued. "Graduated with honours. Got a degree in business studies."

Mr Jones lifted the card, looked under it, and stared at it, bewildered. Kata watched him with amusement. "Mr Jones, if we could please continue with the session?"

"Yes, of course." The card was put back.

Kata turned the second card to reveal a building shaped like a wrench. "Ah, you're the executive for Totally Tools, aren't you?"

"Incredible…" was Mr Jones's reply.

Kata turned the same card over again and the same picture was now on the other side, but with a red-haired woman and two kids in the background. "Your wife and children," Kata stated, trying to ignore the fact that the two children were both girls and the same age as her twins would have been. "They're behind the building, so I can infer from that that you put your work first. You don't have as much time for your family as you do for your job."

Mr Jones looked ashamed. "Yes, ever since I got promoted to executive, I haven't had as much time for Amanda, Rachel, and Flora."

Kata placed her fingers on the third card but did not turn it yet. "This card will show you what will happen if nothing changes. If you continue along your current path…" Kata flipped the card. The picture was of Mr Jones holding a massive moneybag, with the woman—Amanda—and the kids walking off to the right. "…you will be very rich but you will lose your family. Amanda will leave you."

"What?" Mr Jones seemed stunned. He picked up the card and studied the picture.

Kata placed her fingers on the fourth card. "This card will show you what will happen if you do change. If you spend more time with your family…" Kata turned the card. The picture showed Mr Jones holding in one hand a money bag that was half the size of the other one, while he held Amanda's hand with his other hand. One of his kids was sitting on his shoulders and the other was hugging him around his waist. "…then you will be comfortably well-off, not rich, but your family will continue to love you and want to spend time with you."

Mr Jones held the fourth card in his hand, gazing at it for several minutes. Then he stood up, tucked the card in his pocket (Kata didn't mind if clients wanted to take their cards—after all, she wouldn't be able to use them again), and dropped a large bag of money on the table. In amazement, Kata felt the bag. "Mr Jones, this is almost four times my usual rate."

"You have changed me," Mr Jones declared. "I had no idea of the path I was on. I would have lost my family if not for you, Miss Him-Kata. I'm going to change, and you helped me see that I needed to. Keep all of it."

With that, he charged out the caravan. Kata picked up the bag, a smile spreading over her face. If she spent some of her collected profit on the food for the week, she could use the rest of it plus this money to buy an apartment in Danville. She felt really excited. And since good fortune had dropped into her lap, perhaps she _would_ go and see in Danville the man she loved…


	8. Assembling The Team

The morning of the first day, Perry quickly scribbled down a list of the people who might help him. As he made his way down to the first person on the list, he thought about what everyone would say. However much it would hurt, he had to accept that some of the people on his list may refuse to help him, for whatever reason.

He made it to the first cubicle and, luckily, the agent he was looking for was inside.

"Hey, Terry."

The orange turtle spun in his chair. "Perry! Long time no see."

He was the third person to say that to Perry in two days. "I know, it has been too long. Listen, I need your help."

Terry frowned. "Is this about your friend Ohio?"

Perry nodded. "I need you to help me prove him innocent."

"But he's guilty, isn't he?"

As much as it hurt Perry to hear his friend say that, he swallowed it down and said, "No, he isn't."

"But all the evidence-."

"I know what the evidence points to," Perry interrupted. "But I know he's innocent."

Terry grimaced. "I don't know, Perry. I mean, I do trust your judgement but this is really serious. Everybody thinks he's a traitor."

"Don't remind me. Monogram gave me three days to solve it, so I'm trying to put together a team to find out the truth. Will you help me?"

Terry paused. Just when Perry expected him to refuse, he said, "I won't take an active role in your investigation but if you need anything, you can ask and I'll do my best to help."

Perry nodded. "Thank you, Terry."

Perry turned and headed towards the next person. That could have been worse, and even though it still stung, Perry had expected Terry to believe in Ohio's guilt, mostly because of the evidence, but also because Terry hadn't even met Ohio before. The next person on his list had actually met Ohio, so he was confident she would say yes.

This agent was not in her cubicle, but he hung around and after a minute or so the light yellow panda came back with a cup of water in her paw. She seemed surprised to see him. "Perry?"

"Hey, Patty. I'm guessing you've heard about Ohio?"

"Who hasn't?" she sighed. "It's a shame no-one will listen to me."

Perry's spirits lifted. "You've been telling people he's not guilty?"

Patty nodded. "That's right, but for some reason nobody wants to hear it. Anyway, what can I do for you?"

"I'm assembling a team to investigate the real source of the leak," Perry told her. "At the moment, there's one and a half members."

"How's that possible?"

He told her about Terry's half-refusal. "I really need all the help I can get."

He gave her his best pleading look. But it turned out not to be needed. "Of course I'll join your team. I know Ohio's innocent, and I'll lend my service however you need."

"Right now, I need you to help me convince everyone on this list." Perry showed her the list. "Pinky and Priya shouldn't be a problem because they've met Ohio, and India should be easy too, but I want to get Peter, Harry the Hyena, and Victoria the Dalmatian aboard the team."

"Peter's in Seattle," Patty pointed out.

"Doesn't mean he can't come back for three days," Perry shrugged.

"The flight alone would take five hours, plus there's getting hold of him and giving him some time to pack and the journey, and everything would take too long. He'd be here just as the three days were up."

"Okay, not Peter then," Perry admitted.

"And Harry's quite an odd choice too," Patty added. "Considering what happened back with…you know…Maggie the Macaw."

Perry ignored the stab of pain that came with the mention of her name. "He was not the one responsible for what happened to Maggie," he said coldly. "And his skills are useful. Besides, he hasn't been on a mission since that happened. He's depressed, Patty. A mission will do him good."

"I'm not sure what kind of pull I have with him," said Patty doubtfully.

"Okay, fine, but at least you know Victoria really well, and she'd be really good in the team."

"She's an inventor."

"Yeah, but her hacking skills would be invaluable to the team."

"I don't know. Wouldn't you be better off asking Pinky to get Victoria onto the team? They are going out, after all."

"Please, Patty."

Patty sighed. "Okay. But you owe me."

"I totally do." Perry patted her shoulder and headed out to talk to Pinky and Priya. He didn't like that Patty kept arguing with him but he supposed it wasn't really his problem.

…

Pinky was completely on board. Priya also agreed, and she went to find Harry while Pinky and Patty went to talk to Victoria.

Perry had not met the Dalmatian before, so he didn't know her character. But when she agreed to help and the team gathered, he surveyed her as she interacted with the other members of the team. Naturally, she was very nice to Pinky, though she didn't seem to like Harry, for some reason, and her interactions with India seemed to be rather lukewarm. She looked quite tall next to Pinky; although the Chihuahua had had a growth spurt since two summers ago, she was still about a foot taller. True to her Dalmatian heritage, she had black and white stripes all over her body, long arms and legs, and a long tail with a black tip.

Perry looked at his team: Priya, Pinky, Patty, India, Harry, and Victoria, with Terry willing to help if needed. _Not bad_ , he thought. _I have a good team here._

"What do you need us to do, Perry?" Priya asked, a determined glint in her eye.

This shut off the individual conversations that his team had been having. Perry pointed to Priya. "Priy, you and India go check the CCTV footage. Maybe the real culprit has left clues on there." As the two platypuses ran off, Perry pointed at Patty. "Patty, you and Victoria can go to Major Monogram's office and check the computer for the records of any other agent who was born or raised in LOVEMUFFIN captivity."

"But why?" Patty asked. "You're being just as biased against them as the rest of OWCA is being about Ohio."

Perry gritted his teeth. "We're just looking for possible motives, Pat. Do you have a better idea?"

For a moment, it looked like Patty was about to come out with several better ideas, but she simply closed her mouth and followed Victoria down the corridor. Perry pointed at Harry. "Harry, I need you to go down to the cell block and find Karen the Cat. Back when we were a team, you knew her best."

That was a bit of an understatement. They actually dated for a while, which really shocked Perry, Heinz, Maggie, and pretty much the rest of OWCA. The relationship between Harry and Karen had been the first inter-species relationship OWCA had ever seen. Luckily, this had so inspired the agents of OWCA, that it was not also the last. Everybody had thought they would become mates and start a family together, but when Maggie died and the team split up, they went their separate ways. A few agents, Perry included, had tried to get them back together, but it always failed so they had left them alone.

"I need you to make sure that Karen doesn't allow Cassie to mess with Ohio's cell. When I visited him yesterday, I saw Cassie eyeing the controls in the booth. When she's on guard, which she will be for the next few hours, she has access to the controls which control the conditions in Ohio's cell. It's very likely that she will do something to him, and whether by accident or not, she may end up hurting him, or worse. Make sure she isn't doing anything, and make sure that Karen knows to look out for it too."

Harry saluted limply, without laughing like he usually did, and trudged off down the corridor. Perry hated seeing his friend like that. Since Maggie died, he had been a different person; Harry had been the one to dig Maggie's grave, as it was a tradition at OWCA that the closest person to a deceased agent would be the one to dig the agent's grave.

Perry turned to Pinky. "We need a way into LOVEMUFFIN."

"But LOVEMUFFIN don't exist anymore," Pinky argued. "At least, not officially. The only scientists who escaped are Rodney, Doctor Diminutive, Doctor Bloodpudding, and a couple of others, including that blue haired female scientist."

"We haven't heard from them in half a year," Perry pointed out. "This means they could well be building LOVEMUFFIN up again."

Pinky thought for a moment.

"Major Monogram told me a while ago that Doctor Doofenshmirtz has gone back to Rodney, under deep cover," Perry said. "He can't report to Monogram but he's pretending to be on Rodney's side so he can gain information."

Pinky looked up at that. "Really? Well, in that case, I know someone who can help."


	9. Rekindled Love

Kata Himura owned a house now.

Well, it wasn't really a house. It was an apartment. Still, it was really big. She met with the landlord of the building and he offered her the apartment for the money she had. It was a fairly large apartment, in a desirable location, on the fiftieth floor of a sixty-five-storey building.

She thought it was a shame that the landlord hadn't recognised her, especially since the last time she saw him was only five years ago. But she supposed five years could be a lot when you had a lot on your plate, as he did. Still, it did hurt that he chatted to her as if she were another tenant, while on the inside she was screaming at him to recognise her. She barely held it in, mostly because she knew he was most likely still married and she had no chance of being with him.

She had sold her car and caravan for some extra money, without which she probably wouldn't have been able to afford the apartment. But she still had a surprisingly big amount of money left after buying the apartment, so she paid almost everything she had left to build a small room at the front of her apartment, with the front door at the front of it, for telling fortunes. She 100% planned to keep up with that; it was a good money-maker. She decorated it as a gypsy fortune teller would have: with the bead curtain and lots of astronomical stuff. She didn't really understand it but she found people generally paid more if she looked more traditional.

After this, she decided to visit the man she loved, who was the landlord of her building, "coincidentally". If anyone was to ask, she would say no, of course I didn't choose this apartment just because I have romantic feelings for the landlord, that's just a bonus. She went up to the penthouse and knocked on the door. She received a call of "it's open!" so she opened the door and went into the room. She found the landlord, clad in a lab coat, standing on the balcony, looking out. He turned when he heard her approach.

"Oh, hello. You're the woman who just moved in, aren't you?"

She nodded. "Yes, that's me."

"So what can I do for you?"

"Um…" Now that she was up here, it was incredibly hard to get the words out. "I'm not sure if you remember me," she began. "But five years ago, we were close."

"Close?" the man repeated. "If we were close, why don't I remember you?"

"Maybe if I tell you my name, you will remember."

He put his head on one side. "Oh wow, I just realised I don't know your name. I should have looked at your application form, I apologise. So what is your name?"

There was no going back now. She took a deep breath and said, "Kata Himura."

The effect was instantaneous. His face turned pale and he stared at her. "Kata…!" he repeated in a whisper.

Kata nodded. "It's certainly nice to see you again. I don't know if you still have romantic feelings for me—or if you ever did—but I need to tell you now that I have never stopped loving you, Heinz."

He continued to stare at her. Finally, he said in a voice that was barely above a gasp, "You're just as beautiful as the day you left."

That nearly made Kata cry but she continued to hold Heinz's gaze. "You were married, so that was the main reason I left."

"I'm not anymore."

Now it was Kata's turn to stare. "You're not?"

"Charlene and I divorced four years ago," Heinz explained. "I still have my daughter, Vanessa, whom we share custody of."

"So…are you in a relationship?" Kata asked hesitantly.

Heinz shook his head. "I tried dating a couple of times. Didn't work out well until I met this girl, Olivia, who loved evil, just like me. But something happened and she suddenly didn't love me anymore."

Kata was nodding; she had heard of the whole "evil" thing. "So where do we go from here?" she asked. "I know I kind of showed up out of the blue, but I couldn't keep away any longer."

Heinz hesitated for just a moment. "I haven't forgotten about you, after all these years. I didn't recognise you because I wasn't expecting you. I do want to get to know you again, though. Would you be willing to give a relationship a go?"

"Do you mean going out on dates and spending time together like ordinary couples?"

"Yeah."

There was a pause. "Absolutely," beamed Kata. "But I need to tell you something just before we agree to commit. Because you might not want to be in a relationship with me after this."

"Not possible," Heinz said, but he added, "Okay. Shoot."

"When I left, I was pregnant with twins, both yours."

Heinz nearly fell over. "Wait, what?"

"They were both girls but non-identical. I named them Rai and Shika, to stay true to my Japanese heritage. They were beautiful; Rai had your eyes, and Shika had your hair."

"You're speaking about them in the past tense," Heinz noted with a sense of foreboding. "What happened to them?"

Kata felt tears prick behind her eyelids as she explained, "I took them to the park one time, five months ago, when these evil people attacked the park with large guns and fire. Rai and Shika…they were taken." Her voice cracked and she began crying as she added, "They were only four years old."

Heinz put his hand on her hand. "It's okay, Kata. Did you see where they went?"

Kata shook her head. "No. This bald guy with glasses snatched my girls from me and used this small explosion to knock me out." She pulled down the neck of her top slightly, to reveal the reddened area. "It scarred me."

Kata noted that Heinz looked angry. "You say he was a bald man in glasses? Was he wearing a white lab coat like mine with shoulder things?"

Kata frowned, trying to remember. She nodded. "I think so, yeah. He had a really weird voice." A thought struck her. "Oh no. Was that your evil organisation?"

"My former one, yes. I betrayed them because they were insane. The guy you described sounds like Rodney, my most hated enemy. Even when we worked together, we disliked each other. He knew I betrayed them so he somehow knew you and the kids would be at the park at the time you were."

"He did it because of you?"

Heinz was virtually shaking with anger. "Yes. Rodney hurt you and stole our girls to get back at me."

"So you're not angry?" Kata asked without thinking.

"I'm not angry with you," Heinz told her gently. "You did nothing wrong." His voice hardened. "But you bet I'm angry at Rodney. I need to get our girls back."

"But I always thought those evil people killed my beautiful little girls."

"I don't think they would have," Heinz said, thinking hard. "If I know Rodney, he'll try and use them against us somehow."

Kata took Heinz's hand in hers. "We need to get them back."

"We will," Heinz promised. "I'm not going to rest until they're back with us."

Kata loved how he was speaking; it was as if she had never left, as if they were married.

"Do you have a photograph?"

Kata nodded and pulled out the same photo of Rai and Shika that had been on the sideboard in her caravan. "This is their fourth birthday."

Heinz gazed at the photo. "What were their names?"

"Rai and Shika."

"Rai and Shika," repeated Heinz. "They're so beautiful. Shika in particular reminds me of you."

Kata looked at her watch. "I'm really sorry but I have to go. I'm booked to dance in the Wentworth Club in half an hour."

He looked sideways at her. "I didn't know you could dance. What kind of dancing?"

"Belly dancing," Kata replied. "Both my parents were born in India, and they made sure I grew up with some of their culture. I have a glittery Bollywood-type outfit."

Heinz sighed. "I wish I could afford to come and see you."

Kata smiled. "I wish you could too. But for my second performance, I'll be given a spare ticket so I'll give that to you."

Heinz also smiled. "Thank you, Kata. I really do want to get to know you."

For a moment, it seemed like they were going to kiss. But then Kata stood up. "See you later."

"Do you want to come over for dinner? Vanessa's hosting a movie party downstairs so maybe you could meet."

Kata nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."

As she left the room, she couldn't stop the massive smile. The man she loved was still interested in her! Better yet: there was a chance they were going to get Rai and Shika back!


	10. The Wentworth Club Meets Bollywood

"So why exactly do we need to find this woman?" Perry asked Pinky. "Tell me again what she can do for us."

"Kata Himura has ties to Professor Poofenplotz, who's joined Rodney and the remnants of LOVEMUFFIN," Pinky replied. "She's Kata's aunt, on her mother's side."

"So if Kata's mom hadn't changed her name, Kata Himura would be Kata Poofenplotz?"

"Yep."

"Not as catchy, is it?"

"No, but that's not the point. The point is that Kata receives weekly phone calls from her aunt."

"And how would you know this?" Perry inquired.

"Because I'm sometimes there when she gets the phone calls."

"Why would you be over there when she gets the calls?" Perry asked, confused.

Pinky also looked confused. "Um, because I thwart her evil plans every day?"

"You do?" Perry burst out.

"Yeah, just because you and your nemesis gave up daily schemes, doesn't mean the rest of us did."

"Okay." Perry moved past the subject. "So where can we find Kata?"

"She's doing a performance at the Wentworth Club in two hours," Pinky replied. "Tickets are expensive but the cost isn't the problem. Even you on your own could afford two tickets. Unfortunately, it's a no animal zone and there are bouncers at every door."

"So how do we get in?" Perry mused. "We need a couple of humans who are willing to help."

"Well, the obvious choices are Apollo and Artemis," Pinky said.

"We can't ask Artemis," stated Perry. "Because she would never agree. Apollo might."

"What about Carl?"

"Carl?" repeated Perry. "I guess that might work…okay, I'll ask Carl, you ask Apollo."

"Do we really need two?" Pinky asked doubtfully.

Perry shrugged. "Can't harm the case."

…

Carl hesitated after Perry told him the plan. "I don't know, Agent P. It's a bit risky for a plan."

"I'm aware of that," Perry said. "But I need the truth. Don't you?"

Carl looked at the ground, his brow furrowed. Finally, he said, "Okay, Agent P. You've never been wrong before."

That just piled even more pressure on Perry but he nodded. Just then, Pinky entered Carl's office, followed by Apollo, who gave the intern a look. "They dragged you into this too, did they?"

Carl nodded. "Yeah, but I have to admit, it's a little thrilling. It's like Mission Impossible."

Apollo grinned. "I know what you mean."

"Okay," Perry said. "Listen up. I have two tickets for the Wentworth Club, which Carl and Apollo will use."

"We've got the special contacts," Pinky added. "We'll be sitting back here in Carl's office, watching through your eyes. Or glasses, in Carl's case. We'll also be able to keep in contact with you via the earpieces you'll be wearing."

"You'll arrive in time for the show," continued Perry. "Afterwards, Kata will come offstage and go to the bar for a drink. Whoever happens to be nearest will engage her in conversation and ask her about her aunt."

"Seriously?" Apollo said incredulously. "We're going to openly discuss LOVEMUFFIN and other evil stuff?"

"Seeing as neither of you can seduce her because Carl's too young and you're gay, I'd assume that's the best option," Perry replied.

Apollo flushed as Carl stared at him. "You're gay?" he repeated, stunned.

Apollo nodded, still looking a little embarrassed. "How did you know, Perry?"

"Call it a hunch."

Pinky raised his hand. "Artemis told me."

"Anyway, I don't think she's evil, or even a fan of evil, so this should be easy." He caught the glance between Apollo and Carl. "What?" he demanded.

Carl shrugged. "It's just weird for us. We're used to setting you the missions and watching you complete them. We're not used to being the ones prepped for the mission. In fact, this is the first time I'm going out in the field."

Apollo put his hand on the worried intern's shoulder. "This'll go fine. We'll both be great."

Carl turned his nervous look towards Apollo. "I hope so."

…

"I hate wearing suits," Apollo muttered as he walked over to the stage. "Give me a good, long, white lab coat any day."

"Well, _I_ hate looking so young," Carl complained. "I'm overage but I've been asked for ID three times now from the three separate bartenders."

The intern was hanging about by the bar in the fancy Wentworth Club.

"Focus, guys," Perry said through the microphone. "Kata's coming out any time now."

As if on cue, Kata emerged from backstage. Carl and Apollo could not stop staring at her fancy outfit: it was a short, long sleeved, glittery yellow top with a very long, equally as glittery skirt, and bare feet. As the Bollywood-style music began, Kata began dancing. It was mesmerising, seeing her move her midriff with such elegance and rhythm. The two men felt like they'd just stepped into a Bollywood musical. The dance only lasted about five minutes but it seemed like forever. When Kata finished, she took a bow. The whole club went crazy.

After three more dances, the end one of which incorporated some modern disco moves—to the song _It's The Time To Disco_ —Kata left the stage and went backstage. Carl turned to face Apollo, who was still by the stage but addressed Perry: "And was she supposed to go backstage in our grand master plan?"

"No, and stop talking," Perry replied. "It looks weird."

About ten minutes later, Kata came through a door which had a star on it and headed straight to the bar, where she ordered a glass of Ferbeer, a fruity and alcoholic drink that Phineas and Ferb had invented last year. Perry was impressed that this ultra-fancy club stocked it. As it happened, she sat on the stool next to Carl, who, with some encouragement from Perry and Pinky, awkwardly spoke to her: "That was a great performance."

Kata took a gulp of her drink. She was one of those people who could drink quickly without slurping. "Thanks," she said. Her eyes gave Carl a quick look. "You sure you're not too young to be here?"

"I'm twenty-two," Carl complained. "I just look young for my age."

"Right." Her tone wasn't quite disbelieving. "So, I'm guessing you want to talk to me about something. Don't think I haven't noticed the earpiece in your ear, not to mention the special contact lenses your companion over there's wearing." She jerked her head towards Apollo.

"How did you know-?"

"I knew what to look for," she said, taking another gulp of drink. "And I also know why you're here. You want information on my aunt."

It wasn't a question so Carl didn't bother answering. "Do you know where she is?"

"Well, of course not." Carl couldn't tell if Kata was being sarcastic or not. "I really wish we had regular phone calls but I guess some people just don't stay in contact."

Now _that_ was sarcasm, Carl recognised. "So where is she?"

"She and her new boyfriend, Rodney, have fled."

"Rodney's her new _boyfriend?"_

"Focus, Carl," Perry said in the intern's ear. "Remember why we're here."

Carl took a deep breath and said, "Where did they flee to?"

Kata hesitated for a moment. "New Orleans," she said finally.

"New Orleans?" Perry repeated. "Oh man. I gotta get in touch with Inspector Initials."

Carl's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Is that the truth?"

Kata nodded.

"How can I believe you? Why would you tell us that?"

"Because I want my aunt stopped," Kata replied. Her facial expression was hard to read. "I despise evil. My aunt is an evil woman, and I don't want her to wreak havoc in the UK."

Carl nodded to Kata. "Thank you."

He got up and started to walk away when Kata added, "A couple of other LOVEMUFFIN scientists were left here in Danville. You might want to round them up. Unfortunately, I can't reveal that their names are Doctor Diminutive and Doctor Bloodpudding."

Carl nodded. "Sure, I'll respect that. Thanks again."

With that, he left. Apollo got up and followed.

"Got on to Inspector Initials," came Perry's voice in Carl's and Apollo's ears.

"Isn't Inspector Initials the leader of the British secret service?" Carl asked.

"Yeah, but she's in charge of a division down in New Orleans too," Perry explained. "I've warned her and she's going to meet us when we arrive."

Both Carl and Apollo stopped halfway down the street. "What?" Apollo said.

"I've warned her and she's going to meet us when we arrive," repeated Perry.

"When we arrive?" Carl echoed. "Arrive where?"

"In New Orleans."

"We're going to _New Orleans_ now?" Apollo sounded surprised.

"Well, me and my team are," Perry clarified. "I need you two to cover for us."

Carl and Apollo exchanged a look. "You are _so_ going to owe us," Carl said.

Perry grinned. "I know. Now get your butts back to HQ before Major Monogram realises you just went to his least favourite club."


	11. Touring New Orleans

"We are so dead," muttered Pinky for the hundredth time, slinking into his airplane seat.

Patty, who was sitting on his left, swatted him with the magazine she was reading. "Cheer up, Pinks. Major Monogram did say we have three days to solve it. The flight to New Orleans only takes three hours."

"That's not what I'm worried about…"

"We paid for our tickets to New Orleans with our own money," India, who was sitting on Pinky's other side, pointed out. "He's not going to care that we went to New Orleans, as long as we didn't use any of OWCA's money, which we didn't."

Pinky shrugged. "I guess."

Meanwhile, Priya looked like she was trying to tell Perry something, but the teal platypus was completely focused on the laptop he was typing on. "Perry, can I tell you something?"

"Not now, Priy."

"But it's rather-."

"Priya, I love you, but I really need to focus on this."

Priya forced a smile and said, "Yeah, sure. You only have three days for this…" She lowered her voice and turned her head away so that Perry couldn't hear her. "…and I have a couple of weeks to tell you that I'm pregnant again."

"By the way, who did you get to look after Teddy?" he asked his mate.

Priya turned her head back to face Perry and answered, "I asked Phineas and Ferb but Candace's mother instincts kicked in and she "confiscated" Teddy from them. I'm sure he'll be fine with her."

"She's a bit crazy sometimes, but her heart's in the right place."

Priya was sitting on Perry's left, and Harry and Victoria were in the seats behind them. The purple hyena was staring out the window. Victoria had earphones in and she was reading a magazine about fashion. She kept throwing glances at Harry and muttering things like, "I can't believe I got stuck next to you," and, "Why didn't Perry put me next to Pinky?"

Finally, she lowered her magazine, ripped out her headphones, and non-too-gently slapped Harry on the shoulder. "What is _wrong_ with you?" she snapped. "You haven't laughed or made one stupid comment since we reunited yesterday."

Harry looked away from the window and looked at Victoria with such intense sadness that the Dalmatian was taken aback. "Three years ago, I lost someone I cared about," he said. "That same day, the love of my life and I broke up because we blamed each other for Maggie's death."

Victoria's angry face melted. "I'm so sorry," she said softly. "I didn't know."

Harry nodded sadly. "I know you didn't. I just haven't found a reason to smile since I lost Maggie and Karen."

"Karen the Cat?"

Harry nodded again. Victoria put her paw on his shoulder. "You must have loved each other a lot."

Harry nodded. "We did. In fact, on the day Maggie died, I was planning to propose to her."

Victoria's eyes widened. "Oh, you poor thing!"

"It's all right, I don't need your sympathy. I hadn't spoken to Karen since that day three years ago until yesterday. She had reverted back to the silent yellow cat who joined our team three and a half years ago." He chuckled bitterly. "We were a team for just half a year when he killed Maggie."

"When who killed her?"

Harry looked into Victoria's eyes, and the Dalmatian could see a small fire kindle in them. "Heinz Doofenshmirtz."

Before Victoria could comment, a voice came over the speakers: "Cabin crew, get ready for landing."

…

"I hate baggage reclaim," Pinky groaned, trying unsuccessfully to drag his heavy bag off the carousel.

Patty watched in amusement as the whining Chihuahua and his bag were carried past her. "Are you going to be this grumpy and pessimistic for the whole trip?"

"If I don't get this bag off the conveyor belt in the next five seconds, then yes, yes I will."

Patty and Perry helped the Chihuahua get his bag off the carousel and they caught a taxi to the hotel. Two taxis, actually, since all seven of them _and_ their bags couldn't all fit in one taxi. Perry couldn't speak for the others, but he personally was excited. It was his first time in New Orleans, and he was taking pictures with the camera he brought.

They reached the hotel just after midday. As Perry paid the taxi drivers, the others were staring up at the hotel. _"This_ is where we're staying?" India gasped.

The hotel was incredibly luxurious. Soft carpets and fancy wallpaper were the only things that the group of animals saw as they came in, apart from some glass tables, fancy leather seats, and the mahogany reception desk.

"For a place this fancy-pants, it's actually really ironic that it's the only animal-friendly hotel in New Orleans," remarked Harry, who was looking a little more like his old self.

"It's OWCA controlled," Perry told him.

"Ah. That'd explain it."

They were let up to their rooms. It was agreed that they would only need two rooms: the two couples: Perry and Priya, and Pinky and Victoria, would sleep in two double beds in one room, and Patty, India, and Harry would share the other room with separate beds. Perry hadn't expected Pinky and Victoria to want to share a bed, considering they'd only been dating for three weeks, but both were fine with the idea, so Perry rolled with it.

It was about one in the afternoon by the time they were able to leave, so they decided to explore their side of New Orleans. The seven animals had to go around on all fours, which must have confused the heck out of everybody passing by. Seeing three platypuses, a Chihuahua, a Dalmatian, a panda, and a hyena going around together must have looked weird. The weather was hot, which, naturally, provided one more thing for Pinky to complain about.

"Isn't New Orleans south of Danville?" The Chihuahua was really taking the complaining to the next level. "It should be cooler, not hotter."

"It's June, Pinky," India pointed out.

"I wish we could have come here during Mardi Gras," Patty said wistfully.

"Mardi what now?" Harry said.

"Mardi Gras literally translates to "Fat Tuesday"," explained Patty. "It's basically a festival to celebrate Shrove Tuesday."

"What's Shrove Tuesday?" asked Harry.

Patty sighed. "Pancake day."

"Oh. Couldn't you have said that in the beginning? Now I really want pancakes."

"Guys, stop," Perry said, adjusting the map that he had picked up at tourist information. "You're making me hungry, and it's not dinner time yet."

"We missed lunch," Victoria pointed out. The Dalmatian was wearing a floppy hat on her head, which earned her a few more weird looks. "Couldn't we just get chips or something?"

Perry sighed. "Sure. The first person to see a fish and chip shop buys everyone chips."

"I wouldn't even mind buying for everyone," Harry said, just as his stomach growled. "I'm just so hungry."

"I'm hot," complained Pinky. "And hungry. Does anyone know if New Orleans does grilled cheese sandwiches?"

"Dude, most of the diners in _Danville_ don't do grilled cheese sandwiches," Harry pointed out.

"That's really irritating. Grilled cheese sandwiches are awesome."

There was a murmur of agreement at this. Perry rolled his eyes, just as he spotted a fish and chip shop. When he pointed this out, Pinky pointed at him and said, "Who was it who said that the first person to see a fish and chip shop buys everyone chips?"

Perry sighed and handed several dollar bills to Pinky. "Go buy everyone chips," he said.

The rest of the group almost ran into the chip shop. Perry watched them go, feeling like an irritated parent of six children. Then he caught sight of someone he recognised…


	12. Infiltration

When Kata Himura returned to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, she found Heinz at his computer, feverishly searching on it for something. When she came in, he turned. "I'm sorry for just coming in like this," she apologised. "I just knew the door would be open, so I didn't knock."

"No, it's fine," he reassured her. He turned back to the computer. "I'm scouring LOVEMUFFIN's blog website for any clues as to where they could be keeping the girls."

"Rodney went with my aunt to New Orleans," Kata told him.

To her surprise, Heinz said, "I know. He told me." He saw Kata's questioning look. "Yeah, Rodney doesn't exactly trust me but he still thinks I'm part of LOVEMUFFIN. The only problem is that they wouldn't be able to take the girls on the plane, so the only logical explanation is that they're being kept here."

"In Danville?"

"Yeah. And look, here's the website of my old evil exchange partner, Professor Bannister." The webpage changed to Professor Bannister's home page. Heinz pointed at his profile picture. "Don't let the Canadian flag fool you, he's really from Greenland."

"Uh huh," Kata said, though she wasn't really following.

"Anyway, it says on his profile that he owns a warehouse in downtown Danville, and it says here that it's been used for keeping prisoners in the past."

"Then there's no harm in investigating, right?" Kata felt optimistic. "You told me LOVEMUFFIN still thinks you're evil, right?"

"Right."

"So does this Bannister guy still think you're evil?"

""Evil" being a relative term, since he didn't think I was truly evil in the first place, yes. I guess he still thinks I'm a member of LOVEMUFFIN."

"Then you can pass me off as your lab assistant, right?"

"I think he'd suspect something," Heinz mused. "He knows my assistant is Norm. Hmm, what if I introduce you as my girlfriend who's really into evil and wants to learn more about LOVEMUFFIN?"

Kata blushed slightly when Heinz said the g-word, but she grinned. "Yeah, I think we can make that believable."

…

"Is this believable?" Kata asked, showing off her new outfit.

For the "mission" of sorts, Kata had chosen black leather pants, a black leather top, and a white lab coat over. Heinz was staring at her. "Lab coat suits you," he said. "In answer to your question, I think it's very believable."

"Good." Kata nodded a little too long.

"You're scared, aren't you?"

"Yes," Kata stated. "But Rai and Shika need me, so I'm going to put my fear aside to help them."

Heinz grinned. "That's my girl. Anyway, we should get going."

After a short bus ride, they arrived at the warehouse. It looked really ordinary on the outside but when Heinz went up to the door and opened it, inside it was very futuristic. It was one large room with a second floor above it, one that could be seen from the lower floor, apart from the ground that was underneath it.

As Heinz and Kata stared round, a male scientist came up to them. He was wearing a blue bow tie with his lab coat, he had glasses, and his orange hair was short. His right hand looked quite monstrous. "David Bringdown," Heinz said to the scientist.

"Heinz Doofenshmirtz." His gaze flickered from Heinz to Kata and back again. "Who's this?"

"She's…uh…my fiancée."

Doctor Bringdown's eyes narrowed. "Oh, Heinz. You thought you could fool us?"

Kata felt terrified. But then Doctor Bringdown added, "You're clearly not engaged. She doesn't have a ring on her finger. Stop trying to big yourself up and come look at our batch of prisoners already."

He turned and began walking away. Heinz and Kata exchanged a relieved look before they followed.

"So what's your name, young lady?"

"Kata Himura," Kata answered. "I'm Heinz's girlfriend. I'm such a _big_ fan of evil organisations, especially LOVEMUFFIN. Heinz said you could help me learn the ropes."

"Interesting. So what do you like about evil organisations?"

Heinz took in a quiet yet sharp intake of breath but Kata, who had done improv classes for seven years as a kid, didn't miss a beat as she replied, "I admire evil because it's fascinating and it's what I'm passionate about, but I would never waste my time on any of those other organisations. LOVEMUFFIN is the best because everybody looks up to the Organisation Without a Cool Acronym. You guys oppose them and fight them really often. I admire that. You in particular were so commanding when you came up to us by the door, and your evil appearance immediately struck me as being especially awe-inspiring."

Doctor Bringdown smiled. "Well, Heinz, it seems your girlfriend really knows her stuff."

Heinz nodded approvingly. _Ooh, personal flattery. Nice. Usually David wouldn't fall for that, but Kata makes it sound so genuine, instead of forced._

"So you think I'm a good evil scientist?"

"Oh yes," Kata said eagerly. "Especially the way you seemed to come out of thin air. That's the best kind of entrance and you really delivered it incredibly."

 _Okay, we're getting a little weird now_ , Heinz remarked in his head.

They reached a place that looked remarkably like OWCA's prison: a long corridor with glass panes separated by black walls. The cells were all lit.

"We modelled this on OWCA's own prison," Doctor Bringdown said.

"Interesting," Kata said.

Doctor Bringdown gave her a look. "What qualifications do you have?" he asked. "Ones that could be of use to the evil community."

"I had three majors in college," Kata replied promptly. "Electrical engineering, computer science, and functional engineering."

Doctor Bringdown actually looked impressed. He made a _not bad_ face at Heinz. "She's good," he said. "She's a keeper."

Heinz flushed but Doctor Bringdown had already moved on. Kata gave Heinz an amused look and followed. "Our most prized possession has been here for years," Doctor Bringdown was saying. "She's glorious. We took her in with a male about eight years ago…or maybe it was seven. Or nine. I'm horrible at keeping track of time. Anyway, we haven't reprogrammed her yet because she keeps refusing to accept the treatment. It's pathetic of us, I know, but we keep her in a cell and occasionally bring her out for training."

Doctor Bringdown stopped in front of a cage. Kata peered in and saw a small scrap of yellow fur. It looked vaguely platypus-shaped. "This is Pearl," Doctor Bringdown announced. "She's the mother of OWCA's top agent, Secret Agent Perry the Platypus."


	13. Two Sticky Situations

_Gotcha_ , Perry thought as he spotted Esmerelda Poofenplotz through the crowd. He ran on all fours towards her, ducking behind a mailbox when she turned round. She seemed to be alone, though Perry could never tell. He quietly followed her through the streets of New Orleans, through winding alleyways, and over a bridge. Finally, she went into a hotel about two miles from the chip shop. Perry watched her go up to a room on the third floor. He scaled the drain pipe and hid outside the window. He couldn't risk being detected by looking inside so he had to settle for listening. He wasn't disappointed.

"Ah, Esme," said Rodney's voice. "Were you followed?"

"Nobody followed me, don't worry," came Poofenplotz's voice. "Why would someone follow me, Aloyse?"

"I don't know, maybe because we're two evil scientists who try to take over the world on a daily basis?"

"Don't say that aloud," said Poofenplotz, sounding half annoyed, half nervous. "Anyway, it's alright. OWCA won't find us here. The only person who knows where we are, apart from David Bringdown and the other LOVEMUFFIN scientists, is my niece, Kata, and I know she won't tell anyone."

That made Perry feel a little guilty. Kata _had_ told someone; that someone being Carl, with Perry listening.

"Good. So how are the plans coming along?"

"I sent them to Daniel last week," Poofenplotz replied. "He told me yesterday that work is coming along nicely."

 _Work on what?_ Perry wondered. _And who's Daniel?_

"Excellent," Rodney said. "And that small matter in his warehouse…?"

"Don't worry," Poofenplotz said again. "David's on the case. Agent P won't know what hit him."

Perry nearly gasped aloud. "Agent P" could refer to a number of agents, most likely Pinky, since Poofenplotz was Pinky's nemesis. However, it was cleared up for him in the next thing Rodney said:

"Yes, I must admit that Perry the Platypus is a thorn in my side. But we have upped the game."

"Yes, yes we have. Our secret weapon will break him."

Perry felt chills spread down his back. That didn't sound good.

"Anyway," came Rodney's voice. "Have some wine. After all, there are a few more days until David's little "project" is complete, so why not spend them here?"

"Indeed."

Perry couldn't help it then. He peered inside but he didn't have time to see anything of use because Rodney suddenly appeared and seized the teal platypus. He must have been hiding behind the curtain, which meant he knew Perry was out there. This was confirmed a moment later.

"You don't think I saw you following me?" Poofenplotz stood up and regarded Perry with disdain. "I am insulted."

Perry slapped the evil scientist's side with his tail, causing him to drop Perry. Perry leapt onto the windowsill and prepared himself for a fight. Rodney grinned, which took the teal platypus aback. "It doesn't matter," he said. "You didn't hear anything I wouldn't tell you myself."

He reached under the bed and pulled out a rocket launcher. Perry flung the bedside lamp at him, which knocked it out of his hand. "Aw, come on," Rodney complained. "You're a highly trained OWCA agent and I can't even hold my own against Heinz Doofenshmirtz."

Perry relished in the fact that Rodney looked like he was trying to swallow six lemons when he said that. "Can you allow me to use the rocket launcher?"

Perry turned round and put his hand on the side of the window. "There is nothing you can say to me that will make me go easy on you," he said.

"Actually, I just have one word for you," Rodney grinned. _"Pearl."_

Perry's heart froze. He couldn't breathe. His skin felt slippery with sweat. Rodney took advantage of this and grabbed the rocket launcher, firing at Perry, who wasn't able to get out of the way in time. The rocket hit him in the chest and made him fly backwards. Pain exploded from the spot where the rocket had hit him. He felt himself falling but in a moment of despair, he thought _why care?_ He hit the ground on his shoulder, though it was his head that hurt the most when it snapped back and hit a wall. He lay there, stunned, ignored by the locals and tourists going by. The sensation reminded him of when he had fallen thirty feet during the skydiving incident at the COWCA retreat last year. It was almost exactly the same pain, too: broken ribs from where the heavy rocket had hit his chest, and a pounding in his head. This dull pain made him sleepy. His eyes closed, just before he heard someone yell his name.

…

Heinz stared at the yellow platypus with a mixture of emotions on his face. "I thought Perry the Platypus lost his parents," he said, the expression on his face choosing to display shock.

Doctor Bringdown raised his eyebrow. "I'm guessing from your reaction that Rodney didn't tell you about this?"

Heinz shook his head, still staring down at the platypus. "You kept her here all these years?"

Kata interrupted before Doctor Bringdown could reply. "So the male you said she was brought in with…that was Perry the Platypus's father?"

Doctor Bringdown nodded. "That's right. His name was Patrick. It was unfortunate, really. I was really looking forward to pitting both of Agent P's parents against him but Patrick died four years ago when we tried to implant the programming in his mind."

"That's a shame," Kata said, though what she really wanted to say was, "I feel so sorry for both him and Pearl! Poor Patrick."

"Yeah. Anyway, we have several more prisoners whom we have programmed. Follow me."

As Doctor Bringdown turned away, Kata suddenly had a flashback to that day five months ago. _He was there!_

She grabbed Heinz's arm and whispered in his ear, "He was there when Rai and Shika were taken."

Heinz's eyes narrowed but he didn't comment. They followed Doctor Bringdown to another cell. The young evil scientist was looking extremely proud. "Now, these two are the best. Rodney brought them in himself. I helped take them in. Seemed to have some kind of vendetta against the parents."

While Doctor Bringdown had been talking, Kata had been closing her eyes, not wanting to look in the cell. But now she knew she had to. When she opened her eyes, she saw the two people she had dearly hoped she wouldn't see in this facility: Rai and Shika. The two girls were both sitting on the fold-out bed, expressions null. They were wearing the exact same outfits as the day Kata lost them.

Doctor Bringdown continued his spiel. "Anyway, they're only five years old-."

"Four," whispered Kata.

"-but they took the programming so well. We pitted them against each other a couple of times. Their skills are unmatched."

Kata suddenly saw the cuts and bruises on her children's faces and arms. She felt a surge of anger but she forced it down, trying not to let Doctor Bringdown see. Too late. Doctor Bringdown narrowed his eyes at her. His eyes went from Kata, then to the twins, then to Heinz. Something fired up in his expression. "You're the parents."

It wasn't a question. "Yes," Kata said.

"So you were the woman whom we took the twins from," Doctor Bringdown recognised.

Kata nodded. Doctor Bringdown waited, clearly waiting for what she would say. She hated what she was about to say but it was her best chance at her, Heinz, and the twins surviving. "It doesn't matter. We would have handed the twins to you if you had asked. Right, Heinz?"

She didn't have to nudge him; he was already good at reading her mind. "Absolutely."

Doctor Bringdown didn't seem convinced. "That's why you're here, isn't it? To rescue them?"

Heinz opened his mouth but Kata stepped defiantly forward. "Yes, that's right!" she shouted fiercely. "I am here to reclaim our children, who you stole in a cowardly act and forced to become weapons that they shouldn't be!"

Doctor Bringdown didn't look regretful, as she would have liked, but he didn't look smug either. He just brought out a remote control and pressed a button, opening the twins' cage. "Subjects R and S…attack."


	14. Putting Pieces Together

"Perry! Perry!" called a voice.

Perry opened his eyes and found Priya staring worriedly down at him. As he sat up, his hand felt the thing he was lying on. It was a sheet. He looked around.

"You're back at the hotel, Perry. We carried you back here. There was no blood, thankfully, but you hit your head quite hard and you have six cracked ribs."

Perry paused before he remember what it was that had distracted him so badly. "Pearl," he muttered.

"Sorry?"

"Pearl," he repeated loudly, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Pearl, don't you see?"

Priya looked confused. "Um, I'm Priya. Do you remember me?"

"Of course I remember you."

Perry staggered to his feet, stumbled a few steps, and wiped out, face planting the ground. Priya helped him sit up. "Hey, Perry, calm down. You hurt yourself quite badly."

"Pearl," repeated Perry.

"I know!" Priya suddenly shouted. "I know, Perry! I heard you! When you were out, you said that name over and over and over again and none of us knew what it meant, so can you please calm down and explain?"

This calmed Perry down. "Rodney mentioned the name," he explained. "Pearl was my mother's name."

Priya took in a sharp breath. "I remember her. You told me she and Patrick died."

"I thought they did," Perry said, trying to make sense of everything in his hurting head. "Major Monogram told me when I was old enough to understand: LOVEMUFFIN attacked OWCA and…"

"What?" Priya asked when Perry trailed off.

Perry stared at his mate with a horrified look of realisation on his face. "He never actually told me they died," he said quietly. "His exact wording was "we lost Patrick and Pearl". He never said they died, only that we "lost" them."

"Maybe your mom's still alive, then," Priya suggested. "Maybe they were both captured by LOVEMUFFIN."

"Because Rodney didn't mention my dad's name, that probably means he's dead now…" Perry pressed a hand to his forehead. All this was giving him a headache. "But Pearl…my mom's most likely still alive."

He paused and looked round the room again. Only then did he notice what the room was lacking. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.

Priya seemed surprised by this sudden change of subject. "Oh, um, they went to the other room to give you privacy to recover."

Perry nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. Well, they can come back in now."

"I'll go get them."

She left the room. Perry stood up again and made his way over to the window. He looked out. It had been just after lunchtime when he had snuck off. Now it looked to be late afternoon; it wasn't quite sunset but the sun was definitely getting lower in the sky.

The door opened and everyone spilled through. They all came up to Perry and asked how he was feeling, which Perry thought was nice.

Pinky and Victoria sat on their bed together, while Harry took the armchair, Patty and India sat together on the couch, and Perry and Priya sat on their own bed. Perry told them about his meeting with Rodney and Poofenplotz. Pinky looked a little distressed to hear what his nemesis had been up to.

"I phoned Terry while you were recovering," Patty told him. "I told him about the incident."

"That reminds me: how did you know where I went?" Perry asked. "Priya was there as soon as I was flung out the window. How'd you know?"

To his surprise, it was India who answered. "We do have two dogs on our team," she grinned. "Together, Pinky and Victoria were able to pick up your scent. You didn't go too far, you know."

"It was about two miles," Perry pointed out. He looked at the two dogs. "Your noses must have been very good."

Pinky suddenly asked a question that had been on everyone's mind. "Where's Inspector Initials? You said she'd meet us when we arrived."

Perry tried to think through his fuzzy head. "Um…yeah, I did. But she texted me when we arrived in the airport. She got held up at work."

"I like how nobody thought to mention it until now," grinned Harry.

"By the way…" Perry remembered something he had forgotten. "I asked you guys to do jobs before we left and I never got the results!"

"That's an oversight," commented Pinky.

"If I remember correctly, I told Priya and India to check the CCTV footage. What did you guys find?"

Again, it was India who answered first. "It was hard to get in but we saw several agents go into Monogram's office on the day before the siege…who'd we see, Priya? There was Jodie the Jaguar…didn't Apollo and Artemis go in at one point?"

Priya nodded. "Together. Karen and Cassie went in, but so did Ohio."

Perry felt his heart sink but he pushed it aside and addressed Patty. " I believe I told you and Victoria to check OWCA's files."

Patty nodded. "There were only a few agents born or raised in LOVEMUFFIN. Jodie the Jaguar, James the whale song singing double breasted angle hooper, Cassie, and Ohio."

"Wait, Cassie was born in LOVEMUFFIN?" Perry gasped.

Victoria shook her head. "No, but she was found as a kitten and raised by them."

Perry rolled his eyes. "You know what I meant. I didn't know that Cassie was ever in LOVEMUFFIN captivity. That means she's the only one who overlaps the two lists…oh, wait."

"She isn't," Patty said. "Ohio does too."

"Isn't the point of forming this team to prove Ohio innocent?" Pinky pointed out.

"Yeah," Perry agreed. "I was thinking of Jodie the Jaguar. She's in both lists too. I don't think I know her very well."

"She's my best friend," Victoria said coldly.

Awkward silence filled the room. "Awkward…" muttered Harry, sinking lower into the armchair.

"Okay, well, is there anything she's told you that might help us?" Perry asked.

Victoria still seemed quite cold as she answered. "She told me that she was abandoned by her parents and taken in by LOVEMUFFIN at an early age."

"Interesting…"

"I know what you're going to say." Victoria glared at Perry. "Jodie's background doesn't make her a traitor. She's fought for OWCA for six years, and not once during that time has she shown any signs of disloyalty towards us."

Perry nodded. "Okay, I believe you. But when we get back, could you still talk to her without tipping her off that we suspect her?"

Victoria made a face. She definitely was not happy. "Sure."

"Are we leaving, then?" India asked.

Perry nodded.

"So this trip was a big waste of time," Patty said cynically.

Perry shook his head. "I wouldn't say that. It's told us that Rodney and Poofenplotz aren't up to anything here, and that there are two projects back home that we need to attend to. If we catch the next flight, we can make it home with a day and a half left."

Nobody had really unpacked; they hadn't even spent a night in the hotel. The agents scurried off to get their suitcases.


	15. Family Fight

Kata and Heinz stared in horror as their children began to advance robotically on them. They simultaneously backed up, both of their brilliant minds trying to think of ways to avoid a fight. But they ran out of time.

Rai was the first to spring. While she launched attacks at Heinz, her father kept his feet on the ground and blocked the kicks and blows with his arms and his hands. He was only able to defend himself; he felt too stunned to fight back.

A moment later, Shika launched a flying kick at Kata, who flipped backwards to avoid it. "Shi…" she whispered. "Please, recognise me. I'm your mother, Kata."

"I have no mother," Shika said robotically. "I serve only LOVEMUFFIN."

For the next few minutes, Kata and Heinz fought Rai and Shika, neither willing to hurt their children, but neither being able to stop their child from attacking them. While the two adults soon became tired, the two children did not. Heinz's moves were becoming weak, and after a particularly vicious blow, he was sent crashing to the floor, semi-conscious. Kata saw him go down but she couldn't spare any thought for him. Shika had upped the intensity of her moves, and Kata was finding it hard to keep up.

Rai seized Heinz's left lapel and lifted him off the ground, or as off the ground as a four-year-old could. Her fist went back. Heinz's black eyes gazed sadly back at her. "You're just as beautiful as your mother," he whispered. "I wish I had the opportunity to know you as she did."

Something seemed to falter in Rai's glare. Her arm dipped and her fist became unclenched. Doctor Bringdown strode forwards and virtually slammed a button on the same remote as before. All of a sudden, something shocked Rai. She let go of Heinz and clenched her fists to her ears, yelling in pain. This made Shika turn and run to her twin's side. Kata sat down heavily, using this moment to rest. She watched Shika's concern for her twin, her heart lifting for two reasons. One, Shika still worried for her sister, so maybe all human emotion hadn't been wiped from them after all. Two, she had seemed to recognise Heinz, so maybe there was still hope for them.

A moment later, whatever it was that was happening to Rai stopped. Doctor Bringdown stepped back. Immediately, both Rai and Shika leapt to attack Heinz. Kata was too far away to prevent the attack but she was able to pull her twins aggressively off and into a wall. While they recovered, she whispered to Heinz, "That remote controls them, I'll draw the twins away and you get that remote."

She had no idea if he heard her but she had no time to figure it out. She turned to face Rai and Shika, who were readying themselves for an attack. She turned and ran off. One look behind her told her that both twins were following her. She ran up the twisty staircase and onto the upper level, which was completely bare. Evidently, it wasn't used for anything. Kata kept running, but the twins caught up. Rai rugby tackled her to the ground. Her strength gone, Kata could only curl up in a ball to protect herself from her children's attacks.

Meanwhile, Heinz had dragged himself off the ground and was standing, albeit sluggishly. Doctor Bringdown was watching the twins chase Kata. Heinz lunged forward and crashed into the evil scientist, knocking them both down. The remote tumbled out of Doctor Bringdown's grip. Most of LOVEMUFFIN's evil scientists were not physically strong, so Doctor Bringdown was not able to push Heinz off him. Heinz reached out with his foot and smashed the remote.

This seemed to do nothing to Rai and Shika, who continued their attack. Kata felt her life being beaten out of her by her beautiful girls, and she could do nothing about it.

Then she heard Heinz's voice yell, "No! She's your mother, Rai, Shika! Remember her, remember that day five months ago!"

The abuse stopped. Kata lay sprawled on her back, her eyes closed. She could feel her body covered in bruises and cuts. Her breathing was laboured. Then she felt a hand on her chest and two fingers checking her wrist for a pulse. "'M okay," she slurred, opening her eyes.

Heinz's worried face swam into view. "Kata?"

He helped her sit up. "The kids?"

"They both kind of deactivated," Heinz replied, looking. Kata followed his gaze and saw the two limp bodies of Rai and Shika.

"Are they okay?" she asked worriedly, her maternal instincts kicking in.

Heinz nodded reassuringly. "They're fine, I promise. Now we can take them from here." He hesitated. "Um…maybe we should think about giving them to OWCA for a while. Only until we can get the programming out of them," he added hastily. "No longer."

Kata nodded. "I want what's best for Rai and Shika, and if that means they have to sit in a cell in OWCA for a few weeks or even months, in order to get the programming out of them, then I will support it. But I will visit every day."

Heinz also nodded. "So will I," he said. "I promise, Kata, I'm going to help you look after our girls, and we can be a proper family."

Kata smiled. "There's nothing I want more."


	16. Back Home

When Perry and company got back to Danville, it was ten o' clock at night. But since everyone had slept on the plane, nobody wanted to go to bed. So instead, they all did their own things: Victoria went to talk to Jodie the Jaguar, Perry and Priya went home to see Teddy, Patty and India went to visit Ohio, and Harry and Pinky went to Terry's office cubicle to update the orange tortoise on what had happened.

Perry had phoned ahead, and found Peter hanging out at Phineas and Ferb's house. He hadn't known that the panda was back from Seattle but apparently he was. Peter had promised to bring Teddy round to Perry and Priya's house, since neither Phineas nor Ferb nor any other non-OWCA personnel was allowed in the underground village.

While the two platypuses waited for Peter and Teddy to arrive, Priya put on some music. _Ain't Got Rhythm_ came on first. When the two voices-part began, Perry did Sherman's voice while Priya did Phineas's:

 _I ain't got rhythm_

 _Sounds like rhythm to me!_

 _No, I ain't got rhythm_

 _Seems like they all agree!_

 _Said I ain't got rhythm_

 _But you're laying down_

 _(I ain't got rhythm!)_

 _Some funky syncopation!_

 _I ain't got rhythm_

 _But you got that beat!_

 _No, I ain't got rhythm_

 _Look at them, they're stomping their feet!_

 _Said I ain't got rhythm_

 _It's time for you to rock_

 _A brand new generation_

 _Gonna rock a brand new generation_

 _Because I ain't got rhythm!_

They finished just as the doorbell went. When Perry opened the door, he found one of his best friends standing outside, holding the small platypus in his arms. Teddy appeared to be asleep.

After the greetings were over, Priya took Teddy upstairs to put him to bed, while Perry and Peter chatted in the living room. "How was Seattle?"

Peter shrugged. "So-so. Professor Mystery was a bit grouchy; his application for joining LOVEMUFFIN was denied."

"So was Professor Poofenplotz's the first time," Perry remembered. "In fact, she's still not really a member. So what kind of –inator did he make?"

"Oh, some kind of cloud-siphoning-inator," Peter yawned. "I didn't really pay attention. So how've things been here?"

Perry explained everything, from the first accusation against Ohio, to their trip to New Orleans. "Sounds like it's all going to pot," Peter commented.

"Yeah," Perry sighed. "I just wish people would see past their bias sometimes. Just because Ohio was raised by a member of LOVEMUFFIN, doesn't mean he's eligible for betraying OWCA."

"I know what you mean," Peter said. He stood up. "I should probably go see Patty," he said. "I haven't even told her I'm home."

"She went to visit Ohio with India," Perry told him. "She should be home by now, but in case she isn't, she might be with India."

"Thanks."

Perry saw him to the door. "See you, Pete."

"Later." Peter waved as he disappeared into the night.

Perry closed the door, locked it, and went upstairs. He found Priya gently rocking Teddy to sleep in his cot. She seemed to be half-asleep. "Priy?"

Priya's head jerked and she looked at Perry through tired eyes. "Oh, sorry Perry. I didn't hear you come in."

"You know Teddy's asleep, right? You can stop rocking."

Priya stared at her left arm, which was the one rocking the cradle, as if she didn't know why she was still doing the movement. "Huh. Just doing the motion made me as relaxed as if I was the one being rocked."

"Priya, are you okay?"

"Sure." Priya nodded. "I'm just really tired. I didn't sleep on the plane, and everyone else had a nap in the hotel room while you were out but I didn't because I was next to you. I didn't want to go to sleep in case you woke up while I was asleep."

"Aw, Priya…that's nice of you, but now you really need to go to bed."

Perry took his mate's arm and lifted her to her feet. "I recognise that we haven't spent much time together recently," Perry began. "But after this is all over, I promise we'll have more time to ourselves."

"That might be a bit difficult…" Priya said.

"Why?" inquired Perry.

"Because…in a week or so, we won't just have Teddy to look after."

"What do you mean?" It took Perry a good while to figure it out. "No way…!"

Priya nodded and smiled shyly. "I'm pregnant again. That's what I was trying to tell you on the plane to New Orleans."

Perry felt his stomach twist. "I'm sorry, Priy."

Priya shook her head. "It's fine, Perry. You had a lot on your plate. You still do. But don't worry, we're going to prove Ohio innocent."

Perry nodded. "Yes, yes we are."


	17. Old Nemeses, New Friends

Kata and Heinz didn't sleep that night. Rai and Shika were locked up in separate cells opposite a brown platypus, who was snoring softly when they came in. Kata simply sat down on the floor, positioned so that she could see both her children, and gazed at them while they slept. It seemed a bit creepy to the two agents who were on guard, but Kata couldn't bear the thought of leaving her girls. Since their outward appearances hadn't changed, they simply looked like they had six months ago: peacefully sleeping four-year-old girls. That reminded Kata…

She turned to Heinz, who was sat next to her. He hadn't wanted to leave her or the girls either. "It's their birthday in two weeks," she said quietly. "Twenty-fourth of June."

Heinz looked at her. "Well then, we're going to throw them a big party, aren't we?"

"They don't even know you yet," Kata smiled. "Or not properly, anyway. I need to introduce you."

"I'm looking forward to it."

Kata leant her head on Heinz's shoulder, and soon both of them were asleep.

This was exactly how they were the next morning when Perry came to visit Ohio. He looked in confusion at the two adults, before looking at the two girls in the cells. He lightly tapped Heinz on the shoulder. The former evil scientist muttered, "But Your Honour, I don't even know where this cow came from," in his sleep, before Perry tapped him again and he woke up. "Wha-? Oh, Perry the Platypus! Fancy seeing you here."

"What _are_ you doing here?" Perry asked. "And is this Kata Himura?"

"You guys have met?"

"Um…sort of." He briefly outlined the plan in the Wentworth Club. "So what are you doing here?"

Heinz looked a little awkward. "Well, five years ago I had an…um…an affair with Kata, and these-." He pointed to the two girls in the cells. "-are our children, Rai and Shika. They were kidnapped by LOVEMUFFIN and brainwashed to fight us."

For the first time, Perry spotted Heinz's black eyes and the injuries all over the visible parts of Kata's body, including her face. Heinz quickly told him about their mission.

"Where did you say you found them?" he asked.

"In a warehouse owned by Professor Bannister, though Doctor David Bringdown was the one who actually worked there. He showed us-."

He broke off with a gasp as he stared at Perry. "Perry the Platypus…!" he whispered, as if seeing Perry for the first time.

"What?"

"Um…I need to tell you something."

"Okay," Perry said, slowly becoming more worried.

"So…um…gosh, this is harder than I thought it would be. David showed us some of the other prisoners he kept there, and…one of them was a yellow platypus called Pearl."

Perry felt his heart skip a beat. "Pearl…!" he repeated.

"Yes, Perry the Platypus. Your mother is alive."

Perry felt stunned. Rodney _had_ mentioned Pearl's name, and that _had_ led Perry to infer that his mother was alive, but it was another thing entirely to have it confirmed. "Was she okay?"

"She looked a little dehydrated and malnourished," Heinz replied. "I think Doctor Bringdown was keeping her sedated because she didn't move or talk while I was there, but from the way David talked about her, I know she was alive."

Perry didn't know what to think. "I-I have to go save her!"

"Perry the Platypus, do you really have so little faith in me?"

Perry stopped.

" _We_ saved Pearl," Heinz said. "Do you really think I'd leave her there?"

"You don't want me to answer that…"

"No, no I don't," agreed Heinz.

At that moment, Kata woke up. Heinz put his hand on her shoulder. "Kata, this is Perry the Platypus. He's a friend of mine."

Kata smiled half-heartedly. "Nice to meet you," she said. She yawned and stretched. "God, I'm tired."

"Do you want me to get you some coffee?" Heinz offered.

"No thanks," she replied. "Coffee shuts me down. Bananas wake me up," she added with a hopeful glance at Heinz, who stood up.

"Then bananas you shall have," he declared. Then he turned around and left.

Kata got to her feet and slowly walked in front of her girls' cells. She placed a hand on the glass. "They're only four years old," she muttered. "Four. And they've been turned into living weapons."

She shook her head to clear it and looked down at Perry. "So you're the famous Perry the Platypus. I'm guessing you want to see your mother."

Perry's heart did a little leap. "Where is she?"

"We dropped her off in the medical bay place," Kata replied. "She was looking a little weak so the doctor guy said he'd look after her."

Perry turned and ran off. He burst through the door, where Jodie the Jaguar and James the whale song singing double breasted angle hooper were on guard, and ran all the way up to the medical bay. As he approached the entrance, he mentally composed himself. He was about to see his mom, who he thought dead for nearly his whole life. He took a deep breath and tried to make himself go through the door but he couldn't. He really didn't want to see his mom, but at the same time there was nothing he wanted more at that moment. Perry was convinced that the conflicting emotions were going to make him explode when he felt someone come up behind him.

"Are you going to lurk in the doorway all day or are you going to come in?" came Apollo Hastings's amused voice.

Perry turned and looked up at him with such a look of despair on his face that Apollo abandoned the joking demeanour and said, "You're here to see your mom."

"How did you know?"

"The young woman who brought her up told me about it." Apollo crouched down so that he was on Perry's eye level. "I know this must be hard for you, but neither she nor you did anything for her to get to this point. It was LOVEMUFFIN's fault, so if you don't go see her, they win. Are you going to let them get to you?"

"No," Perry said, firmly shaking his head. "Okay, I'm going in…"


	18. Nothing But The Truth part 1 of 2

**The next two chapters will be short but they'll link on from each other.**

…

Perry entered the ward with Apollo right behind him. "She's recovering," the doctor told him. "She was fairly malnourished but we've given her a vitamin supplement and she's conscious now. She's in the bed by the window."

Perry nodded his thanks. Apollo stopped walking and let Perry make his own slow way to the window. Even before he got there, he could see yellow fur. Up to this point, he could just about convince himself that it was a dream; his mother was dead. But the moment Perry saw the yellow fur, he knew it was true. He approached the bed and saw a strange yet familiar yellow platypus lying in it. She looked weak, though not frail. If she were standing up, Perry reckoned she'd be the same height as him. Her eyes were closed but she was clearly sleeping. She looked just as pretty as Perry remembered her. He sat down in the chair next to the bed and watched his mother.

After a few minutes, she seemed to sense Perry's eyes on her because her own eyes opened and focused on Perry. "Patrick?" she whispered.

Perry shook his head, not daring to speak yet. Some part of his brain was still afraid it was a dream.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Her eyes closed again as she continued speaking. "You look just like my mate, who died a few years ago. I thought I had joined him in the afterlife."

Perry managed to speak one question: "Patrick was your mate?"

Pearl nodded, still with her eyes closed. "We had a child eight years ago but I don't know what happened to him. We named him Perry. He'd be eight years old now. I'd imagine he's a beautiful adult."

Perry felt tears threaten his vision as he choked, "He is."

Pearl's eyes opened and she looked at Perry again. "How do you know?"

Tears dripped down Perry's face as he said, "It's me, Mom. It's Perry."

She seemed to realise just then. Her eyes widened and her bill fell open. "Perry…!" she whispered. "Oh, Perry!"

Perry reached down and mother and son gripped each other in a hug so tight it seemed like they were never going to let go. Both platypuses were crying tears of joy as both of them were reunited with their lost loved one. "You _are_ a beautiful adult," Pearl choked through her tears.

As they released each other, Pearl stared into Perry's face as if she wanted to memorise every single detail. "You look exactly like Patrick."

"He died?"

Pearl nodded. "Four years ago. They took him away to do something horrible to him. He and I were both screaming, clutching hands. We felt we'd die if we were separated. For three long hours, I had to listen to the tortured sounds he was making." She shuddered at the memory. "And then…" Her voice cracked. "The evil scientist who took him came back and said Patrick was…that he didn't…"

A fresh batch of tears fell down Pearl's face, these ones of grief. "If they hadn't tried doing whatever they wanted to do to him, he'd still be alive." Pearl reached up with a paw and stroked Perry's cheek. "He'd be so proud of the agent you've become."

"Mom…" Perry had been about to tell Pearl about Priya, but just saying the word "mom" had thrown him right off. He hadn't used the word in over seven years, apart from when referring to someone else's mother.

"Is everything okay, Perry?"

"A year ago, I met someone."

Pearl's face lit up. "A good someone? A someone special?"

Perry grinned through his tears. "Yeah, you could say that. Her name's Priya, and we're mates now."

Pearl practically squealed. "Oh Perry, that's fantastic! Describe her to me."

"She has beautiful purple fur. She's kind, brave, loyal, and an overall amazing person."

"She sounds wonderful."

"She is," Perry said. "And…um…we also have a son."

Pearl stared at Perry. "I'm a grandma?" she whispered.

Perry nodded, grinning again at Pearl's reaction.

"Okay, well, _now_ you have to tell me everything."

For the next hour, Perry and Pearl happily chatted, catching up on everything that had happened. Perry told Pearl about the retreat, the war last Christmas, and the outing of OWCA.


	19. Nothing But The Truth part 2 of 2

After Pearl and Perry stopped laughing at the hilarious story of Perry's disastrous attempt at a tree-top ropes course with Teddy, Pearl suddenly sobered up. "Perry, can I tell you something?"

Perry, who was still in the grip of the levity of the story he had just told, only caught the seriousness in his mom's tone after he had answered. "Okay."

"There's a mole in OWCA," Pearl said urgently. "I saw her at the warehouse. She was there when Patrick was killed."

"She?" repeated Perry, his heart lifting slightly. He knew it was wrong of him, but he was glad because if Pearl had seen a "she", then it couldn't have been Ohio. Besides, Ohio wasn't around four years ago when Patrick was killed.

"I saw her," Pearl continued. "She smirked at me, so she must have known who I was."

"It wasn't a male? Are you certain?"

"Yes, why?"

"My friend, Ohio, has been accused of betraying OWCA. I know it's not him but the evidence seems to be overwhelming."

Pearl shook her head. "Oh no, it was definitely a girl."

At that moment, someone came into the hospital, which was completely deserted apart from the three of them. The newcomer was a jaguar, so Perry assumed it was Jodie the Jaguar. "Hey, Perry. I'm Jodie the Jaguar."

Perry didn't ask how Jodie knew his name; he was OWCA's top agent. _Everybody_ knew his name. "What can I do for you?"

"Have you seen Victoria anywhere?"

"Last I heard, she went home," Perry said apologetically. "Sorry."

"Okay. Thanks."

But she didn't leave. She stared with an odd expression on her face at Pearl, who was staring right back. Then Pearl began to shake and sweat. "Mom, what's wrong?" Perry asked worriedly.

"That's her!" she whispered. She drew back the covers of her bed and stood up on shaky legs. Perry helped her walk into the centre of the room, facing Jodie.

"That's who?" Perry asked, confused.

"The jaguar! She's the traitor!"

"What?" Jodie gasped, looking thoroughly unnerved. "What's she on about?"

Perry stared at Jodie as Pearl snapped, "You were there! You saw my mate get dragged off in front of my eyes and you laughed at me!"

Jodie cocked her head on one side. "Perry, what's this platypus on about?"

" _You're a traitor to OWCA!"_ shrieked Pearl. _"You don't deserve to stand in this building!"_

"It all makes sense…" Perry finally realised. "You were raised by LOVEMUFFIN, and you went into Major Monogram's office the day before the names were leaked."

Jodie looked like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Seriously? You believe the word of a senile old platypus who's been in LOVEMUFFIN captivity for years?"

"I AM NOT SENILE!" Pearl bellowed. "I WAS NOT SENILE WHEN YOU LAUGHED AT ME FOR WATCHING THE PERSON I LOVED MOST IN THE WORLD BE DRAGGED OFF TO A HELLISH FATE, AND I MOST CERTAINLY AM NOT SENILE NOW!"

Jodie's face turned from confusion, to recognition, to anger. "I hoped you wouldn't make it," she snarled. "You saw my face. I hoped they'd cart you off and kill you too."

"What?" Perry gasped. "You _are_ the traitor?"

"Yes, yes I am!" screeched Jodie suddenly. "I went into Major Monogram's office to give him a report but then I saw that his computer was logged in and he wasn't there so I printed out the list of names and gave it to Rodney. And I regret nothing. My loyalty to LOVEMUFFIN is absolute!"

Perry felt incredibly sad, hearing an OWCA agent talk like that. "But why?" he asked. "Why are you so loyal to LOVEMUFFIN?"

"Professor von Roddenstein raised me. He trained me, fed me, and cared for me, which is more than my parents ever did for me! He sent me to OWCA to spy on them, but I got emotionally involved. I made friends, like Victoria. She's a great person, and an even better agent, but even she didn't want to see it. She talked to me yesterday, you know. Of course you know; you told her to talk to me. She actually told me that I was a suspect. Even then, she didn't recognise that I was the traitor."

"She defended you," Perry said quietly. "She was ferocious when I said there was a possibility that you were the one who betrayed OWCA. It's going to break her heart when she finds out."

"Oh, but it won't. Because she isn't going to find out."

Those two sentences sent a chill down Perry's spine. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm not going to do anything." Jodie grinned, revealing sharp teeth that could probably rip a platypus's tail off. "Unfortunately, Perry and his mom Pearl were killed by LOVEMUFFIN in a vicious attack that poor Jodie the Jaguar couldn't stop."

Perry felt his heart freeze. "Other people would know!" he shouted bravely. "Pinky, and Patty, and Terry! They all know you're a suspect, and finding you at the scene of the crime would clinch it!"

"That's true." Jodie thought. "Perhaps I'll discover the bodies, then."

"B-bodies?" squeaked Pearl, who had been silent for a while.

Jodie's claws slid slowly out of their sheaths. "That's right. Bodies. Plural."

She darted forwards and caught Perry by the throat.

"Perry!" yelled Pearl.

Jodie's claws dug into the back of Perry's neck. Perry choked as his air supply was restricted. "Say goodbye, _platypus,"_ hissed Jodie.

"Jodie!" came a voice from behind her. "What are you _doing?"_

Perry just about saw Apollo through his dimming vision. The doctor was standing dangerously close to Jodie and her razor claws.

" _Stay_ _out of this, Apollo!"_

She swung round with her other paw and slashed a cut through Apollo's lab coat and deep into his right midriff. The doctor fell backwards with a yell of pain. Perry used this momentary distraction to flip backwards. It hurt, but Jodie was brought with him. He dislodged her claws from his throat but she grabbed his tail with her other claws and threw Perry with surprising force into the wall. Then Jodie whirled on Pearl.

Dazed, Perry gazed round the room. He could see Apollo clutching his wound on the other side of the room. Jodie had Pearl's throat in a similar way as she had held Perry's, but this time with more force. Rage gripped Perry. He had lost his mother once; he wasn't about to lose her again.

But he didn't have strength.

Then another voice yelled, "Jodie!"

Jodie swung round, a very wild glint in her eye, but that soon vanished when she saw who was at the door. "Vicky…!" she whispered, letting go of Pearl, who dropped to the floor, gasping for breath.

Victoria entered the room cautiously, with a look at Apollo, who was groaning on the floor. She started towards him. "Stop!" Jodie shouted.

Victoria froze.

"If you help him, you suffer the same fate as the two platypuses." There was a sad look in Jodie's eyes. "I don't want to hurt you, Vicky. You've been my best friend for years. But if you touch Apollo, I'll kill you, just like I will kill Perry and Pearl."

It looked like Victoria didn't know what to do. Her face was pale, and her eyes kept darting from Apollo to Jodie and back again. Then she said, "I'm sorry, Jodie. But what you're doing is wrong. Apollo is my friend."

With that, she touched Apollo's hand.

" _TRAITOR!"_ screamed Jodie, suddenly grabbing Victoria by the throat, just as she had Perry and Pearl.

Victoria screamed. That was the final straw for Perry, who, with a sudden burst of strength, leapt and kicked Jodie, who dropped the gasping Dalmatian. "There's only one traitor in this room, and that's you," he snarled.

He saw Victoria blanch but he kept fighting Jodie. Pearl joined in, after a minute of recovering. Perry had forgotten that Pearl was a highly trained OWCA agent; she was just weakened.

Soon, Jodie was getting tired. Her claws still made for formidable weapons but they were no use if she had no energy to use them. Perry and Pearl together delivered Jodie an almighty kick, which sent her towards the window. She gave the two platypuses a loathing look, before she turned and leapt out the window. Without opening it first.

Pearl ran to look out the window. Perry helped Victoria to her feet. "You okay?"

She nodded shakily.

The two of them helped Apollo up. The doctor winced as Victoria, who had trained as a nurse before she became a field agent, moved the fabric of his lab coat away and inspected the wound.

"We need to clean that up before it gets infected," Victoria said, suddenly business-like.

Apollo nodded. "I'll leave this one in your capable paws, Victoria."

He sat down on the end of one of the beds and rolled up his shirt, revealing the nasty cut underneath. Perry had to look away. "The medical bay's a good place for a dramatic scene, isn't it?" he heard Apollo comment to Victoria as the Dalmatian began wrapping a bandage around the injury.

Victoria nodded and then cursed. "Ugh, this'd be much easier if I had opposable thumbs."

Perry went to the window, where Pearl was still looking out. "No sign of her," she said regretfully. "So she was the traitor all along, huh?"

"Yep. Now we gotta convince Major Monogram. Luckily, we have four witness, me included. Ohio's going to be free this afternoon."


	20. The Final Fight part 1 of 3

Major Monogram listened to all four accounts of what had happened: first Perry, then Apollo, then Victoria, and finally Pearl. He had apparently not known that Pearl was back; it was actually quite funny watching Monogram have a near heart attack.

To Perry's intense relief, Monogram concluded that Jodie was indeed the traitor, and Ohio was let out of prison. India and Patty had joined Perry in the medical bay, and the former and Ohio had a tearful reunion that made a lot of people cry.

Soon, everyone moved back to their office cubicles, but someone put music on and nobody was concentrating on their work. Sure, the traitor had evaded capture, but now they knew who it was. Victoria was looking more than a little pale but she was happily chatting to Ohio and India.

However, Perry couldn't relax or enjoy himself. Not only was Jodie still out there, but he couldn't get a part of Rodney and Poofenplotz's conversation in New Orleans out of his mind.

" _Good. So how are the plans coming along?"_

" _I sent them to Daniel last week. He told me yesterday that work is coming along nicely."_

Work on what? Perry was driving himself crazy trying to figure it out. Luckily, he didn't need to work it out. A moment later, Peter the Panda came running through the door and stopped the music. "Guys, there's a serious problem!" he yelled. "LOVEMUFFIN's back, and they've got some kind of device outside!"

All OWCA's agents made their way outside. A sort of massive tripod with curved legs stood over their heads, with a large circle on top of it. It looked like a humungous magnifying glass. _Actually,_ Perry thought. _It looks like the portal devices that Phineas and Ferb made two summers ago, the ones that shrank._

There was a massive screen between two of the legs. The agents gaped in terror as a magnified face appeared on it. "Welcome, OWCA, to your doom!" Rodney's magnified voice said.

Perry stepped to the front of the crowd. "What is your plan?" he shouted.

Rodney paused. "I suppose if I'm going to destroy you all, I should explain how. Well, this device is a portal. It's not a portal to anywhere in particular, it just sucks up stuff from this Earth and makes it disappear forever!" He clapped his hands delightedly and his face disappeared, though his next words were still audible. "Soon, you're all going to disappear forever!"

Screams and gasps came from the crowd of OWCA agents as the portal activated, casting a circle of exactly the same size and shape as itself on the ground. Everything within that circle began to fly up to the portal with a loud whooshing sound. A strong wind picked up, that was only just weak enough to keep the agents on their feet.

Perry turned to the crowd and whistled sharply to get their attention. Everyone was silent. "We need to spread out and find Rodney so we can stop the signal! Priya, Ohio, India, Pinky, Peter, Patty, Harry, and Karen stay with me. The rest of you, spread out and find Rodney! Don't all go to his building, it's unlikely he'll be there. Cassie and James can go to his building to make sure he isn't there. Search everywhere else!"

It was a mark of how much the agents respected Perry that they all did exactly what he said. He wasn't OWCA's top agent for nothing. The nine agents he had named came close to him in a circle. "What are we going to do?" asked Pinky.

"We're going to find a way to shut off the portal from here," Perry replied.

He turned towards the humans: Major Monogram, Carl, Apollo, Artemis, Heinz, and Kata, who were standing near one of the metal legs. "Sir, if I may…?"

Major Monogram nodded, knowing the platypus agent was asking permission to give him an order. "Go ahead."

"Okay, so if you and Carl could join the search, that would be great."

Monogram nodded again, took Carl's wrist, and the two of them ran off. Perry turned to Heinz. "You're the one who knows Rodney best. Is there any feature on this machine that will help us deactivate it?"

Heinz shook his head, his lab coat whirling around him in the wind. "It would be easy if there was a self-destruct button or reverse switch but Rodney looks down on them. If I had made the machine, I would have included both, but there's an almost 0% chance Rodney included either."

Perry nodded; he had expected as much. "Okay, so, avoiding the circle, everyone explore the machine and see if you can find anything that will help."

The agents split up. A few of them climbed the legs of the tripod, while a few others inspected the legs themselves. Kata and Artemis managed to climb to the top of one leg, Peter and Patty climbed to the top of another, and only Perry climbed the third. He searched desperately for something to help them but nothing was there.


	21. The Final Fight part 2 of 3

Artemis was wishing now that she'd accepted the holiday time Major Monogram had offered her. She hadn't, only because she felt she had too much work to do. As she ran her hands over the metalwork, she gave a sideways glance to Kata Himura, who was doing the same a metre or so away from her. Artemis was taught to read physical signs, and she could tell what was going to happen a moment before it did. Kata's hand slipped, and she fell forwards with a cry. Artemis grabbed her hand, but Kata's momentum brought her over the side as well. Artemis's other hand clutched the metalwork. She heard Heinz Doofenshmirtz yell Kata's name at the same moment Apollo yelled hers. Kata swung her legs, trying to reach the curved part of the metal structure. Sadly, it was a few metres too far away.

Everyone's attention was diverted to the two girls but nobody was close enough to help them, so Artemis knew she had to do something herself. She used her arm to swing Kata as far up as she could. Kata was able to grab the metalwork and pull herself up, after which she pulled Artemis up. "Thank you," panted Artemis.

"Thank _you,_ " Kata corrected.

Seeing both girls were safe, Perry slid down the metal leg and ran to join Ohio, who was standing on the edge of the circle, staring up into the void, his eyes squinted against the wind. "There's not much time left!" he yelled above the wind.

"I know!" Perry yelled back. "We have to hope someone will find Rodney and make him turn it off!"

"That's a pretty slim hope!"

"I know that too!"

India ran up to the two platypuses and clutched Ohio's hand. "What are we going to do?" she yelled.

"I don't know!" Ohio shouted back.

On the other side of the machine, Harry was searching one of the legs. Karen was sitting next to him. "Harry," she began quietly.

Harry didn't hear her at first; the wind was so loud. Then she repeated it louder, and he turned to face her. "What?"

"Being about to die is putting things in perspective for me…"

"We're not going to die!" Harry yelled, running his paws over the metal. "We're going to survive, believe me!"

"But facing death makes me realise all the things I couldn't bear to lose. People I couldn't live without."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that if we survive, maybe we could give _us_ another shot?"

"I would like nothing more," Harry replied. "I don't know why we separated in the first place."

"I don't really know either. But…all these years, I've been wishing we could have started a family. It's not too late, is it?"

Harry looked at Karen, the love of his life, squinting to see her through the wind. "No," he said. "No, it's not. It's not too late."

At that moment, Apollo shouted down to Perry from where he was clutching onto the leg about halfway up. "I've got a message from Cassie! She and James found Rodney in a room in his building!"

 _Huh…what do you know? Rodney really did go to hide in his building._ "Is he going to shut down the machine?" Perry yelled up to Apollo.

The doctor shook his head. "He can't!" he yelled back. "Cassie says Rodney told her that he can't control it anymore! In about half an hour, it's going to expand and swallow the whole of Danville!"

Perry stared at the ground in dismay. Then he looked back up at Apollo and shouted, "Is there anything we can do?"

Even from the distance he was standing away from the doctor, he saw Apollo shake his head. "Cassie's going to keep trying. I'll keep you posted."

"Do."

Perry ran up to the leg that the two pandas were just sliding down. "We've examined the portal itself," Peter shouted above the wind. "It's designed to shut down if a certain device is sucked in."

"What kind of device?"

"We don't know," answered Patty. "All we know is that there's one certain device that will shut it down."

Perry sprinted across the wet grass, avoiding the circle, which had now sucked everything out of that one spot, even the grass, and towards Apollo. He cupped his hands around his bill to make a megaphone and shouted, "tell Cassie to make Rodney tell us what kind of device will shut down the portal!"

Apollo slid down the metal leg and fell over at the bottom. Perry helped him to his feet. The doctor handed him the earpiece. "Tell her yourself. You know the details better than me."

Perry hurriedly spoke into the microphone: "Cassie, its Perry. Peter just told me there's a certain device that can shut down the portal if it's sucked in. Make Rodney tell us what the device is."

"You got it," Cassie purred.

Perry thought she was enjoying it a bit too much. He listened to her roughly interrogate Rodney, and he even heard a couple of smacking sounds. He was glad she was being harsh; Rodney had condemned them all to die without a second thought. About a minute later, Cassie said, "It's a small sphere object. Metal. About the size of an apple."

"How do we know he's telling the truth?" Perry asked.

"Well, let's just say having a whale song singing double breasted angle hooper scream in your ear is very painful. James already did it once; I told Rodney James would do it again if he lied to me. I think he's scared of me."

"I wonder why," muttered Perry. "Thanks, Cass. Keep me posted."

As he ran to share the news with Peter, he heard Cassie say, "Don't call me Cass. I'm only tolerating you to save Danville. Tomorrow, I'll hate you just as much as before."

He felt gratified that Cassie was being so optimistic as to believe that there would _be_ a tomorrow. "I hate you too," he said, as if he was saying "see you later".

He gathered his friends and explained about the device. When he was done, Ohio reached into his satchel and pulled out a small, spherical device that was the size of an apple. "Is this it?" he said.

"How in the blazes…?" muttered Heinz. "You've been in prison for the last two days."

"I guess LOVEMUFFIN have been planning this for ages," Ohio replied. "Because I stole it from them last year when we stormed their hideout at Christmas."

"And they didn't think to make another one?" Patty said disbelievingly.

"They probably did," Ohio said. "But I examined it carefully and it can't be remotely shut down, so I'm sure it will work."

"Perry, there's a problem," came Cassie's voice in his ear.

Perry turned away from the group. "What is it?"

"Mr Evil just told me that you can't just throw the device in. It needs to be in the hand of a living creature. The problem is that creature will get sucked through the portal too and they'll never be able to return."


	22. The Final Fight part 3 of 3

**And now: a short chapter to finish the climax :)**

…

Perry's heart froze. "So somebody has to sacrifice themself in order to save Danville?"

He could almost hear Cassie's nod. "That's right." Her tone had become shaky. "Perry, I don't want anybody to die."

"Me neither," Perry said. "Okay, go on radio silence for now, unless there's a major emergency."

"Roger."

Perry turned back to his friends and delivered the bad news.

"Somebody's going to die?" Heinz said fearfully.

Perry nodded sadly. "In order to save Danville, someone needs to sacrifice themself by jumping into the circle with the device in their hand. But who's it going to be?"

"I'll do it," Peter said.

Patty immediately clenched his arm, telling her mate without words that there was no way she was letting that happen.

"Okay, we're going to do this logically," Perry said. He pointed towards Apollo and Artemis. "You two are too valuable." He pointed at Heinz and Kata. "You two have kids who need you." He pointed at Peter and Patty. "You also have a kid and you're friends with pretty much everyone. Nobody wants you to die."

"You're OWCA's top agent," Priya said accusingly. "You're invaluable to OWCA. So it can't be you."

Perry silently cursed. He was planning to get rid of everyone except himself by process of elimination, but Priya saw through his plan. "Okay, so not me." He pointed at Priya. "And if you think I'm going to let you do it, especially in your condition, think again."

Priya made an innocent face.

Perry pointed at Pinky. "You're valuable to OWCA." He pointed at Harry and Karen. "You're a couple, and also very popular."

He turned to point at Ohio but he found the platypus running away from him towards the circle. "Ohio, no!" Perry yelled.

He and India took off after Ohio, who jumped into the circle, clutching the metal sphere with one hand. Perry grabbed India's foot as the pink platypus dived in too. She seized Ohio's other hand with both her hands.

"Ohio, what are you doing?" shrieked India.

Ohio looked down at his mate. "I'm doing the right thing," he called back. "Nobody here need die."

Perry dug his heels in, trying to prevent India from slipping all the way in. If she did go all the way in, she would not be able to come out again. There would be nothing to prevent her from following Ohio into the portal, and Perry would not allow either of his friends to die.

"Ohio, please don't!"

"You can't stop me!" Ohio shouted to his mate. "I've decided. Besides, I can't come out now. But you can. You're not all the way in. If you let Perry pull you back, you'll survive."

"I don't want to live without you!" India sobbed.

"Our children need their mother," Ohio shouted.

"We need each other more!" Tears were falling down India's face. "We need to stay together!"

Ohio considered this. He looked past India to Perry. "You'll look after our kids, won't you?"

Perry violently shook his head. "You won't need me to look after them!" he yelled. "You won't-!"

"Promise me you'll look out for them!" Ohio suddenly shouted.

Perry stopped, tears dripping down his own face. "I promise…" he whispered, nodding. "But Ohio…don't do it…!"

Ohio locked eyes with Perry, who stared pleadingly back. India was also looking at Perry. "We're so sorry. Say goodbye to Sam, Luke, and Piper for us. Tell them we love them."

With that, she wrenched her foot out of Perry's grasp.

"NO!" shrieked Perry as he tumbled backwards. He landed on his side and watched his friends disappear into the portal. "NO!" he screamed.

The portal shuddered and then imploded with a loud noise. The portal dissolved itself and the tripod, before spiralling high into the air and disappearing. Perry rolled to his hands and knees, staring into the air, but his friends did not reappear. He beat his fists on the ground, yelling angrily, like a toddler having a tantrum. Priya hugged him from behind. Pinky and Peter hugged him from the side. Perry began sobbing loudly. He couldn't help it. He had just lost two people he cared about, one of whom he had spent so long defending and trying to prove innocent. The loss of Ohio and India hit him hard. Ohio had saved Perry's life twice. He considered Ohio one of his closest friends.

Heinz and Kata held each other as they sadly gazed at the grief-stricken platypus. Apollo and Artemis did the same. Patty, Karen, and Harry linked hands.

Then something came flying out of the air. Priya noticed it first. "Perry…!"

Perry looked up. It was a small sphere, just like the one that had closed the portal. Perry glared at it. Then it emitted a holographic image. Everyone stumbled backwards in alarm. The image showed Ohio and India, dressed in strange clothes.

" _If you're seeing this," Ohio began. "Then we got through. Thank goodness. Perry, this message is for you. We're alive. We're trapped on a parallel world that we will never be able to return from. Time passes differently here. One minute on your world is a year here. It took us a while to find that out. In an hour on your earth, we'll probably be dead."_

" _I'd imagine that it's only been about three or four minutes since we disappeared," India said. "Well here it's been three and a half years. We have a new arrival."_

 _A small voice called, "Mom! Have you seen my hairbrush?"_

" _Hon, could you come here a minute?" shouted India to the left._

 _A small silver platypus came onscreen. "Mom, what's this?" she asked._

" _This is a message for our friends on another world. You know, your siblings that we told you about."_

" _Oh, right." The silver platypus gave a wave. "Hi siblings! I'm Lily. Mom and Dad told me about you: Sam, Luke, and Piper. I wish I could meet you, but I don't think I ever will."_

 _Lily charged off screen. India said to the screen, "We had her two years ago. In an hour on your earth, she'll be sixty-two years old. It's a little scary," she added with a glance at Ohio. "But we had to act as if we were a new couple who had no children. Sam, Luke, Piper, if you're watching this, I'm so sorry."_

 _Ohio took over: "You'll be able to play this message as many times as you want. Just press the small red button on the side. It took us years to perfect this. Perry, if you're watching this, give this message to our kids, so they can have a small part of their parents with them."_

" _Thank you for not giving up on me," Ohio told the camera. "That's meant for you, Perry. If I know you, you're probably angry that you spent all that time trying to prove me innocent only for us to disappear like that."_

Perry chuckled through his tears. "You're not wrong," he told the message.

" _But you have to remember something important: you proved me innocent. That's all that matters. I know you'll continue to be OWCA's best. Thank you for being my friend."_

Perry felt fresh tears come to his eyes.

" _We have to sign off now," India said regretfully. "We love all of you watching, no matter who you are. If we knew you, we love you. Take care of yourselves."_

The ball shut off and fell at Perry's feet.


	23. The Ending

Perry revisited the circle of mud every day for the next two weeks. The agents of OWCA, commissioned by Major Monogram, had constructed a memorial there. It was a bronze statue of two platypuses in "mindless pet mode" side by side with their forelegs touching. There was a plaque that said _In memory of Ohio and India. They had the soul of OWCA living in them, even though they were not agents. Sacrificed everything to save the world._ Agents left flowers by it. Every time Perry had a break at work, he found himself sitting on the bench by the statue, just staring at it. He really missed Ohio and India.

Telling Sam, Luke, and Piper about what had happened to their parents was the most heartbreaking thing he had ever done. He had lightly explained the portal, and then they had watched the message. Piper had sobbed loudly; Luke had comforted her while crying, himself; and Sam had stormed out of the house. Perry and Priya had offered to help them but they refused and started to live on their own in Ohio and India's old house.

…

Heinz and Kata, holding hands, gazed at the memorial. "I can't believe they sacrificed their lives to save Danville," Kata said sadly. "I didn't even know them, and yet we both owe them our lives."

Heinz nodded. "Poor Perry the Platypus. He must be grieving really badly."

They stared at the memorial for a minute longer, before Kata turned and began walking inside. "I'm going to see Rai and Shika," she said over her shoulder. "Did Apollo tell you the programming's completely gone now? We can take them home today!"

"Yes, Apollo did tell me." Heinz fidgeted with his fingers. "Kate…I'm going to rejoin OWCA."

Kata stopped walking and looked back at him. "I thought you would," she said.

"I'm not going to be a field agent this time," Heinz said. "Francis—that's Major Monogram—asked me to be the head of a special new science division of OWCA. I agreed."

Kata smiled. "That's my guy."

Heinz matched her smile. "So you're okay with it?"

Kata nodded hurriedly. "Of course I am," she said. "100%. I just think I'll stay as a consultant."

Heinz also nodded. "Sure."

"I got a job, did I tell you?"

"Yeah, you did. At Danville Elementary, is that right?"

"Yep. I get to teach basic maths and science to ten-year-olds."

"I tried being a teacher once." Heinz remembered his time as a high school science teacher. "My first lesson did not end well."

"Somehow, I don't want to ask," Kata laughed. "So you coming?"

Heinz grinned. "Absolutely."

They interlocked their fingers and headed towards the building. Not for the first time, Kata lifted her right hand and admired the silver ring on her fourth finger. She had allowed her new "bestie", Artemis, to plan her wedding. Artemis was very excited, and Kata had allowed her to be her head bridesmaid. Heinz had asked Perry to be his best man, to which the platypus had accepted. Kata couldn't wait until September; their wedding was going to be perfect!

…

Perry slowly washed up some dishes in his house, not being able to get the incident out of his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about Ohio and India. They would be dead now. He tried not to cry.

"Perry?"

Pearl came into the kitchen. She was living with Perry and Priya. Major Monogram had offered for her to have her own house but the three platypuses had politely declined.

"Hi Mom," Perry said quietly.

Pearl had a sympathetic look on her face as she took Perry into a hug. "I know you miss your friends, sweetie."

"It's been two weeks," Perry said. "Two weeks already. I keep reliving it in my head every night. I haven't had a good night's sleep in two weeks."

Pearl began helping her son by drying up the dishes. "You know…" she began. "When Patrick first died, he haunted my dreams for three years. Even after two years, the grief and terror was as raw as the day it happened. My nightmares showed me Patrick dying, and my good dreams had me dying in his place. That's how bad it was."

Perry looked at his mother, both interested and concerned. "How'd it stop?" he asked.

Pearl shrugged as she dried up another plate. "I accepted it," she replied. "I didn't want to let Patrick go because he was the only thing keeping me sane in that prison. He was the only person left I cared about—since I didn't know what had happened to you—so I didn't want to accept that he was really gone. That I would never see him again." Tears came into her eyes but she brushed them away with the back of her hand. "But when I accepted that he was gone, that I would never see him again, the nightmares lessened. Of course they didn't completely go away; in fact, I had a nightmare about it just two nights ago. But it gets easier when you accept your friends' deaths. Trust me."

Perry nodded. "You're probably right. It's just that…well…I'm especially worried about their kids. Poor Piper's only a year and a half old. To lose her parents at such a young age…"

"You're looking out for them though, right?"

"Oh yes," Perry answered instantly. "Piper comes over to play with Teddy, though Sam's four years old now; he's going to start OWCA's basic training soon. The only problem with that is he's still angry. I'm afraid that he's going to push himself too hard."

At that moment, there came a shriek in Priya's voice: "PERRY!"

Perry dropped the plate he was holding. Pearl skilfully caught it and moved deliberately out the way as Perry sprinted upstairs. He burst into their room to find Priya on her knees by the window. "Priya, what's wrong?" Perry said urgently.

Priya turned. She was holding the light yellow egg in her hands. It was shaking slightly. "It's hatching!" she almost squealed. "Go get Teddy!"

Perry left the room and went into Teddy's room. The light blue platypus was already up and by the door. "Is the egg hatching?" he asked excitedly.

Perry couldn't help it. He seized Teddy under his arms and swung him around the room while Teddy squealed excitedly. "Yes, yes it is!"

Then Perry, still carrying Teddy, came into his and Priya's room. Perry and Priya sat down on the bed with the egg between them and Teddy on Perry's lap. After a few moments, cracks began forming along the outside of the egg. Teddy squealed. When the top of the egg broke, Priya gently lifted the tiny, pink-furred platypus out. Perry and Teddy both gasped in wonder at the small platypus.

"It's a girl…" whispered Perry.

"She's beautiful," Teddy gasped. "But so tiny. Was _I_ that small when I was born?"

"Yes, yes you were," said both Perry and Priya at the same time.

"Can I hold her?" asked Teddy.

Perry and Priya exchanged a look, then a nod, and then Priya gently laid the tiny platypus in Teddy's small arms. As soon as Teddy had hold of her, the baby platypus stirred and opened her eyes. All three older platypuses cooed over the baby. "She's got brown eyes like yours," Perry observed.

Priya smiled. "Then the name "Hazel" will really suit her."

"Hazel…" repeated Perry. "Absolutely beautiful."

And in that moment, Perry's worries disappeared. He had his mate, he had his son, and now he had his daughter. Life was absolutely perfect.


	24. Epilogue

**I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has read/will read this story. In particular, I have someone I need to mention: Nightflame203, who has been leaving reviews on every single chapter, and I'm very grateful for that :). All three of my Perry Trilogy stories (Field Trip, Christmas War, and New Life) contain some ideas taken directly or indirectly from Nightflame203's PnF work. I'm not going to mention what parts; you'll just have to read Nightflame203's stories and find out for yourselves :) Again, thank you for reading my story, and I hope I will find you reading my next trilogy of stories, all about Perry's children. Bye for now!**

" **Often, the most fun can be found in your own backyard."-Ferb Fletcher, Wizard of Odd.**


End file.
